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THE COUNTS OF GRUYERE 



THE COUNTS 
OF GRUYERE 

BY 

Mrs. REGINALD deKOVEN 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 
DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
1916 



Copyright, 1916, 
by Duffield & Co. 



DEC 19 1916 

©CI.A446855 



CONTENTS 



chapter page 

Prologue 3 

I. Origin of the People 7 

II. Influence of the Church ... 14 

III. Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 25 

IV. Foreign Wars 46 

V. The Burgundian Wars (Count 

Frangois I) 57 

VI. The Burgundian Wars (Count 

Louis) 67 

VII. Struggle for Succession .... 85 

VIII. Religious Reform 94 

IX. The Fall of the House of Gruyere 105 
X. Gruyere without Its Counts . . .128 

Appendix 139 

Bibliography 141 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



La PLACE DE GRUYERE Frontispiece 

From a watercolour by Colonel R. Goff 

The Chateau Facing p. 10 

Gateway . " 22 ^ x 

Lace-makers " 38'^ 

Fortified Houses — North Wall " 56 

The City on the Hill " 72 / 

Terrace of the Chateau 

Church of St. Theodate 112 \/ 

Jousting Court " 132. v 



THE COUNTS OF GRUYERE 



BIS SEPTEM SEACULA CURRENT 
MOENIA FUNDAVIT BELLO FORTISSIMUS 
HAEROS VANDALUS ATQUE SUO SIGNAVIT 
NOMINE MUROS GRUS VIXIT AGNOMEN 
COMITE DEDIT ADVENA PRIMO 
RUBE A GRUEM VEXILLA AC SCUTI PILOSI SUSTENTENT 
QUORUM EUTIS PARRIDA RUGIS AC ARMATA MANUS 
VULSIS RADICIBUS ARAE EST 
HUIC CELEBRIS SERVES ET LONGA PROPAGO NEPOTUM 
DIVES OPUM OLIVES PIETA 
VESTIS AURIS EXTITIT ET NOSTRIS 
PER PLURIMA SAECULA TERRAS PRAEFUIT 
GRUERIUS SEXTAE LEGIONIS VANDALORUM DUX 
ANNO 436 

Behold now twice seven centuries. —That a Vandal hero bravest 
among warriors. — Founded this fortress. — This fortified city has 
since preserved the name of the Grue. — The stranger became the first 
count. — His descendants carried the Grue on their scarlet banners. — 
And on their hairy shields. — To the Vandal hero succeeded a long line 
of illustrious descendants. — Rich in fortune, rich in their piety. — These 
Counts won the order of the golden vest. — And for many centuries 
the posterity of Gruerius. — Chief of the sixteenth Vandal legion who 
lived in the year 436 governed our country. 



PROLOGUE 



N the edge of a green plain around which 
rise the first steps of the immense amphi- 
theatre of the Alps, a little castled city 
enthroned on a solitary hill watches since 
a thousand years the eternal and surpassing spectacle. 

Around its feet a river runs, a silver girdle bend- 
ing northward between pastures green, while east- 
ward over the towering azure heights the sunrise 
waves its flags of rose and gold. 

In the dim hours of twilight or by a cloudy moon- 
light, the city pitched amid the drifting aerial 
heights seems built itself of air and cloud, evanescent 
and unreal. 

By the fair light of noonday, sharp and clear upon 
its eminence, it is like a Durer drawing, massed lines 




4 The Counts of Gruyere 

of crenelated bastions, sharp-pointed belfreys, and 
towered gateways completing a mediaeval vignette 
ideal in composition. Strange as the distant vision 
seems to the traveler fresh from the rude and time- 
stained chalets of the mountains, still more surpris- 
ing is the scene which greets his arrival by the pre- 
cipitous road, past the double towered gateway, 
within the city walls. Expressly set it seems for a 
theatrical decor in its smiling gayety, its fault- 
lessly pictorial effect. Every window in the blazoned 
houses is blossoming with brightest flowers, as for 
a perpetual fete. The voices of the people are soft 
with a strange Italianate patois, and the women at 
the fountain, the children at their play, the old men 
sunning themselves beside the deep carved doorways 
are seemingly living the happy holiday life which 
belongs to the picture. The one street in the city, 
opening widely in a long oval place, is bounded by 
stone houses fortified without and bearing suspended 
galleries for observation and defence, forming thus 
a continuous rampart along the whole extent of the 
hillside. 

At the eastern extremity of this enclosure be- 
yond the slender belfrey of the Hotel de Ville 
and the ancient shrine where a great crucifix looks 
down upon the scene, a flagged pathway rises 
sharply under a tall clock tower within the enceinte 
of the castle set at the steep extremity of the ridge. 



Prologue 5 

There behind strong walls a terrace looks from a 
crenelated parapet over the descending sunset 
plains, a prospect as fair as any in all Italy. Within 
a second rampart, semi-circular in form, the castle 
with its interior court looks eastward and southward 
over the encircling valley with its winding river, 
up to the surrounding nether heights of the Bernese 
Oberland. Walls twelve feet in thickness tell the 
history of its ancient construction, and chambers cut 
in the massive stone foundations recall the rude life 
of the early knights and vassals who defended this 
chateau-fort from the Saracen invasion. Noble 
halls, later superimposed upon the earlier founda- 
tions, with stone benches flanking the walls and re- 
cessed windows overlooking the jousting court, 
evoke the glittering days of chivalry and the vision 
of the sovereign race of counts who here held their 
court. 

Ten centuries have passed over this castle on 
the hill; six told the story of its sovereignty over the 
surrounding country, but unlike most of the cha- 
teaux of Switzerland it has been carefully restored 
and maintains its feudal character. The capari- 
soned steeds no longer gallop along the ancient road, 
the crested knights no longer break their lances in 
the jousting court; but in the wide street of the little 
city is heard a speech, and in the valleys and from 
the hillsides echo herdsmen's songs, which contain 



6 The Counts of Gruyere 

Latin and French words, Greek, Saracen and Ger- 
man, a patois holding in solution the long story of 
the past. 



GRUYERE 



CHAPTER I 

ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE 

RIPLY woven of the French, German and 
Italian races, the Swiss nation discovers 
in its Romand or French strain another 
triple weave of Celtic-Romand-Burgun- 
dian descent. 

While the high mountainous regions of eastern 
Switzerland were early scaled and settled by the 
Germanic tribes, the western were still earlier in- 
habited by the ancient Celtic-Helvetians and then 
civilized and cultivated by the most luxurious of 
Roman colonies. Resisting first and then happily 
mingling with their Roman conquerors, the Celtic 
people were transformed into a Romand race, simi- 
lar in speech and origin to the French. In the heart 
of this Romand country was an ancient principality 
where the essential qualities of the beauty loving 



8 



The Counts of Gruyere 



and imaginative races, Roman and Celtic, expressed 
themselves uniquely. A fountain of Celtic song and 
legend, a centre of chivalry and warlike power, this 
principality is known only to the outer world by the 
pastoral product which bears its name "Gruyere." 

Remarkable in the interest of the unbroken line 
of its valorous and lovable princes, and in the pre- 
cious and enchanting race mixture of its brave, 
laughter-loving people, its supreme historical inter- 
est lies in its little recorded and astonishing political 
significance among the independent feudal princi- 
palities of Europe. 

When the Teuton barbarians came to devastate 
the enchanting loveliness of the templed Roman 
garden which was Switzerland for three idyllic 
centuries, they stopped at last at the penultimate 
peaks of the Occidental Alps, at a certain region 
called aux fenils {ad fines), where a glacial stream 
rushes across the narrow valley of the Griesbach, 
among the southern mountains of the Bernese Ober- 
land. Thus western or Romand Switzerland pre- 
serves a character definitely apart from the eastern, 
and this barrier across the Bernese valley, un- 
passed for a thousand years, still divides the Ger- 
man from the Romand speaking peasantry. To the 
north and west lies Gruyere, greenest of pastoral 
countries, uniquely set in a ring of azure heights, 
where like a lost Provence, the Romand spirit has 
preserved its eternal youthfulness and charm. 



Origin of the People 9 

Greatly loved by all the Swiss, its annals piously 
preserved by ancient chroniclers, this country is 
German only in its eastern rocky portion; but where 
the castle stands and in all the wide valleys which 
open towards the setting sun, it is of purest Romand 
speech and character. Here ruled for six hundred 
years a sovereign line of counts whose history, a 
pastoral epic, is melodious with song and legend, 
and glowing with all the pageantry and chivalry of 
the middle ages. Although skirted by the great Ro- 
man roads, and flanked by outpost towers, Gruyere 
was never romanized, being settled only in its 
outlying plains by occasional Gallo-Roman vil- 
las, while the interior country, ringed by a barrier 
of almost inaccessible mountains, was left to the 
early Helvetian adventurers who had first pene- 
trated its wild forests and its mountain fastnesses. 
Here, unaffected alike by Roman domination or 
Teuton destruction, they had set up the altars of 
their Druid faith and here preserved their ancient 
customs and their speech. 

Here also traveled the adventurous Greek mer- 
chants from old Massilia (Marseilles), leaving in 
their buried coins and in the Greek words of the 
Gruyere dialect the impress of their ancient visita- 
tion. 

A country fit for mysterious rites, for the habita- 
tion of the nature deities of the Druid mythology, 
was Gruyere in those early days. The deep caverns, 



io The Counts of Gruyere 

the "black" lakes, and the terrifying depths of the 
precipitous defiles through which the mountain 
streams rushed into marshy valleys, were frequented 
by wild beasts and birds, and haunted in the imagi- 
nation of the people by fairies and evil spirits hold- 
ing unholy commerce for the souls of men. Here 
until the Teuton invasion the early Celts lived un- 
molested, when some fugitives from the once smiling 
cities and the cultivated plains came to join them 
in the refuge of their mountain homes. Strange to 
their half-savage brothers were these softened and 
romanized Celts who had tended the olives and the 
vines on sunny lake sides, and who in earlier days 
had mingled in Dionysian revels with Roman maid- 
ens with curled locks and painted cheeks. Strange 
their tales of the white pagan temples, and all the 
glories of the imperial cities left smouldering in 
ashes after the Teuton hordes had worked their 
will. The arduous pioneer life of their predecessors 
and the task of clearing and cultivating their wild 
asylum among the mountains and the marshes was 
now their lot. Adopting slowly the altered speech 
of these later romanized inhabitants and converted 
to the Christian faith by Gallo-Roman priests, the 
indigenous inhabitants finally lost all memory of the 
teachings of their Druid bards and the firm belief 
in reincarnation which sent the Celtic warrior 
laughing to his death; but in the traditions of the 
peasantry, abounding with nature myths, sorcerers 




THE CHATEAU 



Origin of the People ii 

still haunt their mountain caves, fairies and May 
maidens still flutter about their crystal streams. 

One more strain, that of the heroes of the Nibel- 
ungen, the blond Burgundian giants who had forced 
the Romans to share with them a portion of their 
conquered territories, was destined to add height 
,and virile force to the Celto-Roman people of this 
country. Strangely differing from their ancient 
enemies the merciless Teutons, these mighty Bur- 
gundians, most human of all the vandal hords, in an 
epic of tragic grandeur rivaling the classic tales 
of mythology, for a century maintained an autono- 
mous and mighty kingdom. Gentle as gigantic, in- 
domitable in war, invading but not destroying, their 
greatest monarch, Gondebaud, who could extermi- 
nate his rival brothers, and enact a beneficient code 
of laws which forms the basis of the Gallic juris- 
prudence, was their protagonist and prototype. Be- 
side his figure, looming in the mists of history, is 
Clothilde, his niece, the proselyting Christian queen, 
who fled in her ox cart from Geneva to the arms of 
Clovis the Merovingian, first king of France. En- 
throned at Lyons, Gondebaud issued the laws which 
regulated the establishment of his people in their 
new domains, which spread over what was later the 
great French Duchy of Burgundy, the whole extent 
of occidental Switzerland and Savoy. "Like broth- 
ers," it is related by the Latin chroniclers, they 
mingled with the resident inhabitants, dividing 



12 The Counts of Gruyere 

lands and serfs by lot, marrying their daughters, and 
quickly adopting their language and their Christ- 
ian faith. 

Thus the whole of Romand Switzerland was 
deeply impregnated with the Burgundian influence, 
assimilating its vigorous race type and ruled by its 
laws. Although the country later passed under the 
universal domination of Charlemagne, the charac- 
ter of the people was little affected by the distant 
rule of the great monarch, and when the Carlovin- 
gian Empire fell apart and Rodolph I, of the second 
Burgundian line, crowned himself king in the 
monastery of St. Maurice, his subjects were of the 
same race and customs as those of his predecessors. 
Differing in blood from the early Burgundian rul- 
ers, these Rodolphian kings, allied to the Carlovin- 
gian emperors and long governors of lower or Swiss 
Burgundy, ruled pacifically and under the beloved 
Rodolph II and his still better loved Queen Berthe, 
and their son Conrad, resisted the Saracen invasion 
and preserved for a hundred and fifty years the 
autonomy of their kingdom. Nobles with their serfs 
and freemen already divided the land, their preroga- 
tives and vassalage long since established by the laws 
of Gondebaud. The Oberland, or Pays-d'en-Haut, 
Hoch Gau, or D'Ogo, in the German tongue, a coun- 
try no longer wild but rich in fertile valleys and 
wooded mountain sides, was given to a Burgundian 
lord, under the title of King's Forester or Grand 



Origin of the People 13 

Gruyer; Count he was or Comes D'Ogo, first lord 
of the country afterwards called Gruyere. Although 
Burgundian, the subjects of Count Turimbert were 
of different races. In the country of Ogo, called 
Haute Gruyere, they were German, while in the 
lower northern plains, called Basse Gruyere, they 
were Celtic or Celto-Roman. Between these two 
divisions the mountain torrent of the Sarine rushes 
through a deep gorge called the Pas de la Tine. For 
many years the Gallo-Roman peasants feared to 
penetrate this terrifying barrier between the rising 
valleys and the frowning heights, until, according to 
a legend, a young adventurer broke his way through 
the primeval woods and the rocky depths of the 
gorge to find out-spread before him the fertile upper 
plateaux of the Pays-d'en-Haut. 

"It happened," so runs another legend, "that the 
Roman peasants who had passed the Pas de la Tine 
and led their herds along the course of the Sarine, 
wished to cut their way through the thick forest, 
but encountered other peasants who spoke a differ- 
ent language. Here peacefully they halted on the 
hither side of the dividing Griesbach, 'where it 
touched the limit of the Alamanni.' " (In ea parte 
quae facit contra Alamannos.) 



CHAPTER II 



INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH 



|WENTY lords of Gruyere made up the 
line which maintained a singularly kindly 
and paternal rule over the differing 
people of their pastoral kingdom; all of 
one race, and all but the three last in the direct 
descent from father to son. Six centuries they 
ruled, distinguished first for their inexhaustible 
love of life, their knightly valor and their fidelity 
to the Catholic faith. The first Count Turimbert, 
with his wife Avana, lived in the first castle be- 
longing to the domain at Castrum in Ogo or 
Chateau d'Oex. His was the time of good Queen 
Berthe, who, for defence against the Saracen in- 
vasion, built a long series of towers on height 
after height from Neuchatel to the borders of 
Lake Leman, many of which, situated in the 
county of Gruyere, became the property of its rul- 

14 



Influence of the Church 15 

ing family. That Turimbert was of importance 
among the secular landholders of the tenth century 
is attested by his participation in the Plaid of St. 
Gervais, a tribunal famous as being one of the 
earliest on record, and held by the Seigneur de la 
Justice of Geneva. His exchange of lands with 
Bishop Boson of Lausanne is also recorded in the 
first of a series of yellow parchments, which in 
monastic Latin narrate the succeeding incidents of 
the Gruyere sovereignty and tell the story of the 
long predominance of the church in Switzerland. 
Seven centuries before Turimbert, in the period of 
the Roman domination, a cloister had been founded 
at St. Maurice D'Agaune, near the great Rhone 
gateway of the Alps, in memory of the Theban 
legion who had preferred death to the abjuration of 
their Christian faith. Here, three centuries later, 
the converted Burgundian king, Sigismund, took 
refuge after the murder of his son, enlarging it into 
a vast monastery where five hundred monks, sing- 
ing in relays from dawn to dawn in never ceasing 
psalmodies, implored heaven for pardon of his 
crime. In the seventh century came the missionary 
monks from Ireland, St. Columban and his succes- 
sor, St. Gall, who built his hermitage on the site of 
the great mediaeval centre of arts and learning 
which still bears his name. At the same time, St. 
Donat, son of the governor of lower Burgundy, 
and disciple of Columban, mounted the archiepis- 



1 6 The Counts of Gruyere 

copal throne at Besancon. In his honor the earliest 
church of the county of Gruyere was erected near 
the castle of Count Turimbert in the Pays-d'en- 
Haut. Under the influence of these powerful re- 
ligious institutions, the country was cultivated and 
the people instructed, but under Rodolph III the 
second Burgundian kingdom rapidly approached its 
dissolution. Weakly subservient to the church, and 
dispossessing himself of his revenues to such an ex- 
tent that he was forced to beg a small pittance for 
his daily necessities from his churchly despoilers, 
it was said of him that "One ne jut rot comme ce 
roi" Ceding the whole of the province of Vaud, in- 
cluding part of the possessions of Count Turimbert, 
to the bishop of Lausanne, the already practically 
dispossessed monarch named the Emperor Henry 
II of Germany, as heir to his throne. And although 
Henry the II was unable to enter into this inherit- 
ance during the lifetime of Rodolph, the latter's 
nephew, the Emperor Conrad the Salique, assumed 
control of the kingdom which then was incorporated 
into the German Empire. Not without devastating 
wars and desperate opposition on the part of the 
heirs of the Rodolphian line was the country pre- 
served to the German sovereign, and under his dis- 
tant rule it became a prey to continuous dissensions 
between the bishops and the feudal lords. 

"Oh, King," appealed the prelates, "rise and has- 
ten to our succour — Burgundia calls thee. These 



Influence of the Church 17 

countries lately added to thy dominions are troubled 
by the absence of their lord. Thy people cry to thee, 
as the source of peace, desiring to refresh their sad 
eyes with the sight of their King." 

The answer to this appeal was the establishment 
of the Rectorate of Burgundy under the Count Ru- 
dolph of Rheinfelden and his successors, the Dukes 
of Zearingen, who founded in the borders of ancient 
Gruyere the two cities of Berne and Fribourg. Be- 
tween these centres of the rising power of the bour- 
geoisie arose mutual dissensions and quarrels with 
the already hostile lords and bishops, and the coun- 
try was more than ever the scene of wars innumer- 
able. 

Still holding the supreme power, the Church 
alone could bring the peace for which the country 
longed. At Romont, near the borders of Gruyere, 
Hughes, Bishop of Lausanne, invoking a great as- 
sembly of prelates, proclaimed the Treve de Dieu 
before a throng of people carrying palm branches 
and crying "Pax, Pax Domini" Thus in this corner 
of the world was adopted the law originating in 
Acquitaine, which prevailed over all Europe and 
which alone controlled in those strange times the 
violence and the pillage which was the permitted 
privilege of the robber bishops and the robber lords. 
Gruyere and its rulers reflected the influence of the 
all-powerful hierarchy, and Turimbert and his 
successors took their part in the great religious so- 



1 8 The Counts of Gruyere 

ciety extending over all Europe, where the conser- 
vation of faith was of supreme importance, and 
when men belonged more to the church than to 
their country. 

The possession of the great monasteries surpassed 
those of the largest landholders, and Rome with its 
mighty prelates for the second time became the capi- 
tal of the world. When Hildebrand the monk, 
mounting the papal throne as Gregory VII, excom- 
municated the German Emperor, Henry IV, he 
placed the imperial crown upon the head of none 
other than Rudolph of Rheinfelden, the governor 
of Transjurane Burgundy and of the province of 
Gruyere. After Henry, forced to submission, had 
scaled the icy heights of the Alps to prostrate him- 
self before Hildebrand at Canossa, after Rudolph 
had been killed in battle by Henry's supporter God- 
frey de Bouillon, Hildebrand's pupil and successor 
Urban II, journeying to Clermont in Cisjurane Bur- 
gundy, summoned all Europe in torrents of fiery elo- 
quence to rise and deliver the Holy Land from the 
power of the Saracens. Unmarked in the churchly 
parchments which alone record the history of these 
times, were the successors of Turimbert; but in the 
period of the first Crusade, Guillaume I, of the suc- 
ceeding and unbroken line of Gruyere counts, ap- 
pears as the head of a numerous and powerful fam- 
ily preeminent for their loyalty to the church. 
Among the shining names of chivalry immortalized 



Influence of the Church 19 

in the annals of the Holy wars are those of Guil- 
laume, of his son Ulric, chanoine of the Church at 
Lausanne, and of his nephews Hughes and Turin. 

Not with Peter the Hermit, the hallucinated 
dwarf whose sobbing eloquence had led an innum- 
erable motley host of unnarrled peasants to certain 
disaster in the deserts of the East, went the hundred 
Gruyerian soldiers led by Guillaume, but with the 
knights and priests of Romand Switzerland, the 
Burgundian French and Lombard nobles who 
swelled the fabled hosts of Godfrey de Bouillon. 
With gifts of lands to churches and to priories and 
with the blessing of the lord bishop of their county 
the Gruyere pilgrims, eager to battle for the holy 
cause, obeyed with ardor the cry of Dieu le veut, 
Diex le volt, and leaving their country, faced with- 
out faltering, dangers and distant lands and carried 
their scarlet banner with its silver crane, bravely 
among the bravest. 

"The young bergeres of Gruyere," so runs the 
chronicle, "barred the gates of the city to prevent 
their departure, by force the gates were burst, and 
the poor maidens wept as they listened to the stand- 
ard-bearers cry, a hundred times repeated, "En 
Avant la Grue, S'agit d'aller, reviendra qui pourra. 
How wide is the ocean we must cross," they asked 
as they galloped down the valleys, "as wide as the 
lake we must pass when we go to pray to our Lady 
of Lausanne?" 



20 The Counts of Gruyere 

Tasso, the poet of the Crusades, so well appre- 
ciated the valor of the Swiss soldiers that he chose 
their leader for the honor of first scaling the walls 
of Jerusalem. 

"Over the moat, on a sudden filled to the brim 
With a thousand thrown faggots, and with rolled 

trees stout and slim, 
Before all he ventured. 

On helmet and buckler poured floods of sulphurous 
fire. 

Yet scatheless he passed through the furnace of 
flame, 

And with powerful hand throwing the ladder high 
over the wall, mounted with pride." 

Again when the Christians were in want of wood 
for the catapults and rolling towers with which 
to scale and batter down resisting walls, Tasso leads 
this same undaunted servant of de Bouillon into the 
forest enchanted by the Satanic ally of the Mussel- 
mans. 

"Like all soldiers I must challenge fate — 
Surprises, fears and phantoms know I not. 
Floods and roaring monsters, the terrors 
Of the common herd affright not me! 
The last realm of hell I would invade, 
Descending fearless, sword in hand." 



Influence of the Church 21 

Such, according to Tasso, was the spirit of the 
Swiss Crusaders. Did the banner of Gruyere float 
with those of Tancred, of Robert of Normandy and 
of all the flower of the French noblesse over the 
walls of Jerusalem delivered? No record tells of 
it. Many of the hundred "beaux Grueriens" doubt- 
less perished on the holy soil. A fraction only of 
the host which in multitudes like the stars and 
desert sands invaded the east, assembled for the as- 
sault upon the Holy City. Famine, thirst and pesti- 
lence decimated the great armies upon which fell 
the united cohorts of the oriental powers. Blas- 
phemy and prostitution, the refuge of despair, alter- 
nated in the camp of the Crusaders with fanatic vis- 
ions of visiting archangels, of armed and shining 
knights descending the slopes of heaven in their de- 
fence. From such a phantasmagoria, surpassing in 
the historical records all the poetic imaginations of 
its famous chroniclers, only a few returned to tell 
the tale. Among these fortunate pilgrims was Guil- 
laume of Gruyere, who, once more safe among his 
home mountains, ended his life with lavish gifts to 
the holy church of which he was so preeminent a 
servant. The priory of Rougemont founded by him 
upon his return, the church of St. Nicholas in the 
same region, near the borders of the Griesbach, still 
exist in testimony of his devotion and preserve the 
memory of his name and reign. Exemplifying by 
his deeds the dominating religious exaltation of his 



22 The Counts of Gruyere 

time he was allied by marriage with a family 
equally illustrious for its loyalty to the church. His 
wife, Agathe de Glane, was sister to Pierre and 
Philippe de Glane, protectors and tutors of the 
young count of Upper Burgundy, who through his 
mother's marriage to the duke of Zearingen shared 
with the latter the rule of the united provinces under 
the sovereignty of the German Empire. Son of a 
father done traitorously to death by his own vassals, 
the young count of Burgundy was himself as basely 
murdered while at prayer in the church of Payerne 
by these same vassals, and with him the brothers-in- 
law of Guillaume de Gruyere, Pierre and Philippe 
de Glane. Guillaume de Glane, son and nephew of 
the murdered protectors of their young suzerain, 
profoundly moved by the tragedy which had be- 
fallen his house, determined to renounce the world 
and commanding that not one stone should remain 
of his great castle of Glane dedicated these same 
stones to the enlargement of the monastery of Haute- 
rive, where, taking the garb of a monk, he finished 
the remainder of his days. Such was the origin of 
the power of the great Cistercian monastery which 
still stands at the junction of the rivers Glane and 
Sarine in the county of Fribourg. Not content with 
this unequalled act of piety and renunciation, the 
insatiable Bishop of Lausanne exacted the cession of 
every chateau and every rood of land belonging to 
the family of de Glane, part of which — through the 



Influence of the Church 23 ■ 

marriage of Agnes to Count Rodolphe I, and of 
Juliane to Guillaume of the cadet branch of 
Gruyere — had extended the domain of the latter 
house. Undeterred by the greed of the bishop, 
Rodolphe, piously preserved the traditions of his 
predecessors Raimond and Guillaume II, who had 
founded the monasteries of Humilimont and 
Hautcret, by continued gifts to the latter as well as 
to Hauterive. Yet the robber bishop implacably 
demanded another act of renunciation from Count 
Rodolphe, one of serious significance to the future 
of his house, by which he authorized the transfer- 
ence of the market of the county from Gruyere to 
the neighboring city of Bulle which belonged to the 
bishop. The city of Bulle thereafter became the 
centre of exchange of the county, while Gruyere, 
although now the chef-lieu of the reigning counts, 
was permanently deprived of all possibility of prog- 
ress or enlargement. Thus the city of Bulle, busy 
and flourishing even to this day, has kept its place in 
the growing commercial importance of the county, 
while Gruyere is still the little feudal city of the 
middle ages, precious historically as it is pictur- 
esque, but crystalized in a permanent immobility. 
Forty marks, scarcely more than the worth of the 
mess of pottage for which Esau sold his heritage, 
was the price accepted by Count Rodolphe for the 
commercial existence of Gruyere. 

Rodolphe's far more virile successors, Pierre I 



24 The Counts of Gruyere 

and Rodolphe II and III, attempted with the sup- 
port of the people to defy the power of the bishop, 
and in disregard of the act of their predecessor, to 
keep up the marche at Gruyere. But the power 
which could excommunicate an emperor did not 
hesitate to launch the same formidable curse upon 
the princes of Gruyere and they were forced to 
yield. The foundation of the church of St. Theod- 
ule at Gruyere and of the rich and venerated con- 
vent of the Part Dieu by his daughter-in-law, 
Guillemette de Grandson (widow of his eldest son 
Pierre) attested the unabated devotion of the Gruy- 
ere house to the Catholic religion. 



CHAPTER III 



SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY 

N the middle of the thirteenth century the 
counts of Gruyere — who had so long 
been oppressed by the grasping prelates 
of the Church — came within the orbit of 
another power, that of the rising house of Savoy. 

Fortifying their influence by alliances with the 
kingdoms of Europe, extending its domains over 
occidental Switzerland and far into Italy, the 
counts of Savoy were already in a position to dis- 
pute the power of the bishops, when Count Pierre 
took his place at the head of his house. Although 
he had occupied for two years the bishopric of 
Lausanne, which had so long been inimical to the 
counts of Gruyere, the spiritual overlordship of the 
country of Vaud did not satisfy the genius or the am- 
bition of the ablest personage in a family which 
numbered five reigning queens, and who, himself 

25 




26 The Counts of Gruyere 

was marquis in Italy, earl of Richmond in England 
and uncle and adviser to King Henry III of England 
and of his brother the Emperor Richard. Although 
he lived by preference in England where his lightest 
word could control the tumults of the populace, the 
wisdom of Count Pierre's choice of delegates greatly 
extended his Savoyard domain. "Proud, firm and 
terrible as a lion," "the little Charlemagne" as his 
contemporaries called him, was wise also and affable 
with his subjects. Brilliant in intellect, master of 
happy and courteous speech, he fascinated where he 
controlled. The princely air of pride and power, 
seen in the portraits of Pierre de Savoy, the blazing 
dark eyes and mobile mouth of his Gallo-Roman 
ancestors, present the truly majestic semblance of 
the founder of a dynasty and the eminently sympa- 
thetic overlord of the Gallo-Roman counts of Gruy- 
ere. Such was the great ruler and law-giver who 
easily supplanting his niece as head of the house of 
Savoy, reduced to a loyal vassalage all the nobles 
of Roman Switzerland. Not without opposition 
from the bishops and feudal lords nor without jeal- 
ousy from the German emperor did Count Pierre 
arrive at a height where he saw only heaven above 
and his mountainous domain ! "From Italy through 
the Valais," so a chronicler of his house relates, "at 
the rumor that a rival German governor of Vaud 
was besieging his castle of Chillon, he reached the 
heights above Lake Leman. There he surveyed the 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 27 

banners of the noble army, and the luxurious tents 
in which they took their ease before his castle. Hid- 
ing his soldiers at Villeneuve, alone and unobserved 
he rowed to Chillon, where from the great tower he 
watched the young nobles as they danced and rev- 
eled in jeweled velvets and shining armor, with 
the maidens of the lake-side. Then at a given sig- 
nal, he emerged to lead his waiting army to the 
complete rout of the surprised besiegers. " 

Among these holiday warriors was Rodolphe III 
of Gruyere, who with his comrades — eighty-four 
barons, seigneurs, chevaliers, ecuyers and nobles of 
the country — were taken to the castle of Chillon 
where, according to the chronical: "Gomte Pierre 
ne les traita pas com me prisonniers mats les festoya 
honor abl em ent. Moult jut grande la despoilie et 
moult grande le butin." 

After a year's imprisonment Count Rodolphe was 
ransomed by his people, and first among all the 
Romand knights swore fealty to his new overlord 
at the chateau of Yverdun. Growing in favor with 
Pierre de Savoy and his successors, the counts of 
Gruyere became their trusted courtiers and coun- 
selors, and through many vicissitudes and many wars 
merited the encomium of Switzerland's first histor- 
ian, that the "Age of chivalry produced no braver 
soldiers than these counts, their suzerain had no 
more devoted vassals." 

The submission of Rodolphe of Gruyere having 



28 



The Counts of Gruyere 



been confirmed in formal treaty, his grandson and 
successor Count Pierre the Third, loyally supported 
during a long and brilliant reign the banners of his 
overlord against the rising power of Rudolph of 
Hapsburg. When Berne, allied with Savoy, was 
besieged by the Hapsburg army, Count Pierre gen- 
erously supplied money to the beleaguered city and 
in the final battle when the city fell, it was a Jean 
de Gruyere who snatched the torn and blood- 
stained Bernese banner from the hands of the enemy. 
When asked the name of the hero who had saved the 
flag, his comrades answered "c'est le preux de Gruy- 
ere" and to this day the Bernese family of Gruyere 
bear the title thus bravely won by their progenitor. 

The role of mediator, filled with distinction by 
his successors, was first assigned to Count Pierre III, 
who as avoyer of Fribourg at that time allied with 
Austria, was empowered to arbitrate the differences 
which arose between the houses of Savoy and Haps- 
burg. 

Always loyal to his suzerain, Count Pierre served 
under the Savoy banner in the war with Hughes de 
Faucigny, dauphin of the Viennois, and only after 
the marriage of Catherine (daughter of Amedee V 
of Savoy) to the redoubtable Leopold of Austria 
had sealed a truce between the rival powers which 
divided and devastated the country, did he consent 
to join the Austrian army in Italy under Duke Leo- 
pold himself. 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 29 

In the brilliant cortege which followed Duke 
Leopold to Italy, Count Pierre, accompanied by a 
number of his relatives, was notable by the command 
of a hundred horsemen and a force of archers. 
Mounted on horses, armored like their riders and 
covered with emblazoned velvets, such a force of 
cavalry was the strongest as well as the most impos- 
ing instrument of warfare in this time, when the 
knights, willing only to conquer by personal bravery, 
despised all arms except their lances and their 
swords. Contested by the warring Guelphs and 
Ghibellines, the city of Milan and the palace of the 
newly crowned German emperor himself was with 
difficulty protected by the imperial guard. The 
soldiers of Duke Leopold, arriving without the city 
walls, under a hail of stones and arrows, broke 
through the outer barricades and burst the city 
gates, and then Gruyere again, at the head of his 
horsemen dashed through, bringing release to the 
imprisoned emperor and victory to the Austrian 
arms. 

Not long was the alliance between the houses of 
Hapsburg and Savoy to endure. The rising powers 
of the cities, still more the prowess of the moun- 
taineers, the Waldstetten, who soon after Duke Leo- 
pold's Italian campaign had vanquished him and 
his shining warriors at the famous battle of Mor- 
garten, resisted with growing success the Savoyard 
and the Hapsburg sovereignty, and divided in ever 



30 The Counts of Gruyere 

changing alliances the fermenting elements of the 
tottering feudal society. The horn of the Alps, 
sounding the tocsin over the rocky defile of the 
Swiss Thermopylae, announced the approaching 
end of the feudal rule of the middle ages and the 
dawn of liberty in Switzerland. 

Although at first a willing ally of Pierre de Savoy, 
the city of Berne, greatly enlarging its possessions 
by conquests and alliances and growing rapidly 
in independence and republican enlightenment, 
warred incessantly with the nobles of the surround- 
ing country and with particular virulence attacked 
the counts of Gruyere. So serious a menace did the 
proud city become to all the knights of Romand 
Switzerland, that they were driven to attempt its 
humiliation. All the great lords of Helvetia west 
and east joined the brave alliance. The banners of 
Hapsburg and Savoy were united in the determined 
onslaught upon the powerful city, and a large force, 
from Fribourg, eager to aid in bringing her rival 
low, swelled the forces of the nobles in a glittering 
army of three thousand knights, who with their at- 
tendant vassals gayly and confidently practised feats 
of arms before the little fortified city of Laupen 
while awaiting the arrival of the Bernois. 

Among them, Count Pierre de Gruyere, refusing 
an enormous indemnity for losses at the hands of the 
Bernois and as ever faithful to his order and to< 
Savoy, took his place with other nobles of his house. 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 31 

Warriors each one by training and tradition, not 
yet had any fear of defeat chilled their ardor or their 
courage, nor had they learned the wisdom of con- 
cealing their threatened attack upon the growing re- 
public. The citizens of Berne were given ample 
time to send a messenger to the victorious mountain- 
eers of Morgarten, and this was their reply: "Not 
like the birds are we who fly from a storm-stricken 
tree. In trouble best is friendship known. Tell the 
Bernois we are friendly and will send them aid." 

The June sun was setting over the plateau when 
the nobles desisting from their sports drew up their 
cavalry, supported by a chosen band of infantry 
from Fribourg. Retreating before the advance of 
the latter, the Waldstetten, in the forefront of the 
Bernese army, sought, as was their custom, an advan- 
tageous position for attack. From the heights above 
the city, with their terrifying war cries, and with the 
same furious onslaught which had overwhelmed 
Duke Leopold's glorious horsemen at Morgarten, 
they fell upon the nobles in a bloody melee in which 
horses, men and valets perished in a hopeless con- 
fusion. Three Gruyere knights were left lifeless on 
the battlefield and eighty-four others, who thus paid 
the price of their temerity in thinking to stem the 
already formidable confederation of citizens and 
free people in Switzerland. Undeterred by this de- 
feat and continually menaced by the incursions of 
the Bernois, Count Pierre de Gruyere successfully 



32 The Counts of Gruyere 

held them in check, and, no less wise as ruler than he 
was valorous in war, enlarged the power and extent 
of his domain by political and matrimonial alliances 
with the great Romand families of Blonay, Grand- 
son and Oron, as well as with the warlike La Tour 
Chatillons of the Valais, and with the powerful Wis- 
senbourgs and the semi-royal Hapsburg-Kibourgs 
of eastern Switzerland. Leaving to his nephews, 
"Perrod" and "Jeannod," the seigneuries of Vanel 
and Montsalvens which they had inherited from 
their father, he shared with them the rule of the 
people. 

The "three of Gruyere" whose acts are recorded 
in the dry and unpoetic parchments of the time, were 
united in a paternal and pacific rule under which 
people and country reached a legendary height of 
arcadian prosperity. 

First to deserve the name so cherished in the 
legends of Gruyere of "pastoral king," Count Pierre 
III saw his herds increase and valleys and mountain 
sides blossom into fabulous fertility. His was the 
golden age of the herdsmen the "Armaillis," of 
whom it was related in symbolic legend that, "their 
cows were so gigantic and milk so abundant that it 
overflowed the borders of the ponds into which they 
poured it. By boat they skimmed the cream in these 
vast basins, and one day a "beau berger" busy with 
the skimming, was upset in his skiff by a sudden 
squall and drowned. The young lads and maidens 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 33 

sought long and vainly for his body and wore mourn- 
ing for his tragic fate. Discovered only several 
days later, when amid floods of boiling cream they 
whipped the butter into a mound high as a tower, 
his body was buried in a great cavern in the golden 
butter, filled full by the bees with honey rays wide 
as a city's gates. "Where," asks a living Romand 
writer, "is the eclogue of Virgil or Theocritus to 
surpass the beauty of this legend?" 

Dying full of years and honors, Count Pierre left 
the care of his beloved people and his happy coun- 
try to his nephews the cherished Perrod and 
Jeannod, who even in the churchly parchments are 
known by the nicknames affectionately given them 
by their uncle. Together they ruled, although 
Pierre IV, the eldest and ablest, bore the title of 
Lord of Gruyere. Always by the side of his uncle 
in all his wars and on the bloody plain of Laupen, 
Perrod had already won his title of Chevalier, and 
did not lack occasion to further prove his courage in 
a new war with the Bernois who in one of their 
many incursions had advanced far among the upper 
Gruyere mountains, near the twin chateaux of 
Laubeck and Mannenburg, lately acquired by the 
Gruyere house. Accustomed to success and con- 
fident of an easy victory, the Bernois scattered about 
the valleys, leaving the flag to their leader with a 
few men-at-arms. But the Gruyeriens, wary and 
prepared, were already massed upon the heights 



34 The Counts of Gruyere 

over the defile of Laubeck-Stalden, whence they fell 
suddenly upon the Banneret of Berne, who, think- 
ing only to save the flag, cast it far behind him 
among his few followers, and meeting alone the at- 
tack of the enemy, died faithful to his duty and his 
honor. Bitterly lamenting, the Bernois retreated 
with their flag, while Count Perrod and his victor- 
ious band, returning to the castle, celebrated fam- 
ously with songs and jests, in a brave company of 
knights and ladies, their triumph over their redoubt- 
able enemies. Not so gayly did the banners of 
Gruyere return homeward in the next contest with 
Berne, for, now allied with Fribourg and deter- 
mined to avenge their late defeat, they advanced in 
great numbers and with fire and sword ravaged the 
country of the count of Gruyere and attacked the 
chateaux of his allies, the lords of Everdes and Cor- 
bieres. Already the chateau of Everdes was burn- 
ing, the Ogo bridge was lost, and while Corbieres 
was hotly besieged by the men of Fribourg, the Ber- 
nois advancing within sight of the castle of Gruyere 
to attack the outpost Tour de Treme, encountered at 
the Pre de Chenes a small band of Gruyeriens. 
Here, until the arrival of the main force of Count 
Pierre, two heroes, justly celebrated and sung in all 
the annals of Gruyere, alone behind a barrier of 
corpses withstood the onslaught of the Bernois. 
Two men of Villars sous Mont were they: Ulric 
Bras le Fer, and the brave Clarimboz. So strong 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 35 

the arms with which they wielded the great hal- 
berds of the time, that the handles, clotted with 
the blood of their foes were glued to their clenched 
fists, so that it was necessary to bathe them long in 
warm water to detach them. Although the Ber- 
nois burnt the Tour de Treme and captured sixty 
of the defendants, Count Pierre and his soldiers 
forced them to retire, and the castle and city of 
Gruyere were saved. Strong men were these knights 
and vassals of Gruyere to withstand and gayly to 
forget the bloody assaults of their determined foes, 
for in the intervals of war alarms they passed a 
holiday life of jest and song. Within the circle of 
their starlit heights, they nightly watched the 
brandon lights on peak and hilltop; and while the 
sentinels in every tower scanned the wide country 
for a sign of the approaching foe, within they made 
merry in the banqueting hall. In the long summer 
afternoons, tourneys in the jousting court, or tri- 
bunals held in the same green enclosure alternated 
with generous feasts outspread on the castle terrace 
for the enjoyment of the people. Often Count Pierre 
would mount his horse and ride among the moun- 
tains where he administered justice before the doors 
of the chalets, adopting the orphans who were 
brought to him, giving dots to the daughters of the 
poor, and sometimes taking part in the wrestling 
contests of the herdsmen — their brother in sport — 
their father in misfortune. During all the years of 



36 The Counts of Gruyere 

the fourteenth century the feudal society of Switzer- 
land, although so fiercely attacked by the rising 
bourgeoisie power, blazed like the leaves in autumn 
in a passing October glory with the snows of winter 
seemingly still afar. At Chambery, the court of 
Amedee VII of Savoy, called Le Comte Vert from 
the emerald color of the velvet in which he and his 
courtiers were Clad, the brother rulers of Gruyere 
took part in all the fetes and tourneys. Present 
when the great order of the Annonciata was insti- 
tuted, and again, when the emperor of Germany 
was received at banquets served by knights on horse- 
back, they sat at tables where fountains of wine 
sprinkled their rubies over gilded viands in vessels 
of wrought gold. 

But at Gruyere the young brother rulers held a 
little court which for intimate gayety and charm 
surpassed all others. Gallic in its love of beauty, 
loving life and all its loveliest expressions, it was a 
court of dance and song — the heart of hearts of 
Gruyere, itself the centre and the very definition of 
Romand Switzerland. Often intermarried, the 
Burgundian counts preserved in its perfection the 
blond beauty of their ancient race, surpassing in 
athletic skill the strongest of their subjects, and with 
the same bonhomie with which their conquering 
ancestors had mingled with their vassals, they exem- 
plified in their kindly rule the Burgundian device: 
"Tout par I f amour, rien par la force." The people 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 37 

doubly Celt in origin, added to the Celtic ardor the 
quick imagination, the gift of playing lightly with 
life, and a high and passionate idealism expressing 
itself in an unequaled and valorous devotion to their 
rulers, together with an arcadian union of simplicity 
and finesse, the individual mark of their sunny pas- 
toral life. 

The chateau on its green hill was a fit centre of 
the closely mingled life of the rulers and their peo- 
ple. Rebuilt on its ancient rude foundations under 
the reign of Pierre de Savoy, it possessed the great 
towers and sentinel tourelles, the moat, drawbridge, 
courtyards, terrace and arsenal of the time, but in 
its enchanting situation, its intimate, inviting charm, 
it quite uniquely expressed the sense and love of 
beauty of its unknown artist architect. 

Within were the high hooded fireplaces of the 
time, blazoned with the silver crane on scarlet of 
the Gruyere arms, armorial windows and walls bril- 
liantly painted with lozenges or squares of blue and 
scarlet. In the great Hall of the Chevaliers, Count 
Pierre and his brother Jeannod held their revels 
among a familiar company of their cousins of 
Blonay, Oron, Montsalvens and Vanel, preux cheva- 
liers all, assembled at Gruyere after long days at the 
chase. There, also, were the daughters of the house, 
brave in jewels and brocades, and answering to the 
names of Agnelette and Margot, Luquette and 
Elinode, who took their part in the fair company 



38 The Counts of Gruyere 

dancing and singing through the long summer 
nights. Or Chalamala, last and most famous of the 
Gruyere jesters, would preside over a Conseil de 
folie, with his jingling bells and nodding peacock 
plumes, recounting with jest and rhyme the legends 
of the ancient heroes of Gruyere. Only Count Per- 
rod was forbidden to wear his spurs, having one day 
torn the pied stockings of the fool. "Shall I marry 
the great lady of La Tour Chatillon?" he had asked 
his merry counselor. "If I were lord of Gruyere," 
was the reply, "I would not give up my fair mistress 
for that ill-featured dame." 

Devoted Catholics as were the Gruyere people, 
their religion was a source of comfort and protec- 
tion, but even more a reason for rejoicing and for 
the innumerable fetes in honor of their favorite 
saints, for which the little city was almost contin- 
ually decorated. Passion plays and mysteries cul- 
minated at Easter in a wild carnival week in which 
priests and people sang and danced together in 
masks and parti-color from dawn to starlight. In the 
fete called Jeu des Rois, a parade in costume was 
led by a crowned king in scarlet robes, accompanied 
by his fool, by his knights and his minstrels. Music 
and dancing and feats of arms were followed by a 
religious ceremony, and at night-fall after the play, 
the king's banquet, where white-bearded magi of- 
fered him gifts of gold and silver goblets, of frank- 
incense and myrrh, finished the revel. 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 39 

Or again on the first Sunday in May all would 
assemble for the sport called Chateau d 'Amour of 
ancient Celtic origin. In the midst of a green field 
or in the square before the Hotel de Ville, & wooden 
fortress was erected, surrounded by a little moat 
and with high towers and a donjon. Maidens and 
more maidens, smiling and flower-crowned and with 
white arms outstretched, poured down a rain of ar- 
rows and wooden lances from the battlements, or 
oftener pelted their lovers the assailants with show- 
ers of roses. Then at a given signal, in a sudden 
escalade, the besiegers broke over the walls, each 
to receive a kiss and a rose as prize of victory. Then 
besiegers and besieged together burned the fortress, 
and the day ended with bacchic libations and with 
dances. Meeting by moonlight nights to sing their 
love songs and rhymed legends in the city square, the 
Gruyere people better loved their dances, the long 
Celtic Korols (or Coraules), when, singing in 
chorus in wild winding farandoles, they went danc- 
ing over vales and hills, day in and day out until 
human strength could bear no more. Such was the 
famous dance quaintly recounted in ancient French 
by a Gruyere chronicler. 

"It happened one day that the Count de Gruyere 
returning to his castle, found thereby a great merry- 
making of young lads and maidens dancing in 
Koraule. The same Count, greatly loving of such 
sport, forthwith took the hand of the loveliest of the 



40 The Counts of Gruyere 

maidens and joined the company. Whereupon, no 
one tiring, they proceeded, dancing always, through 
the hard-by village of Enney up to Chateau D'Oex 
in the Pays-d'en-Haut, and wonderful was it to see 
the people in all the villages they passed joining in 
that joyous band. Seven hundred were they when 
they finished, having danced continuously for three 
days over the mountain leagues between Gruyere 
and Chateau D'Oex, and great was the fame of 
Count Perrod and his dancing in this Grande Co- 
quill e." 

Such was life in this idyllic country, the beloved 
Grevire of the melodious Romand speech, where 
"the houses are high with roofs leaning far towards 
the ground, where the plums are so ripe they fall 
with the breeze, where there are oats and tressed 
wheat, cows black and white and rich cheese, black 
goats, too, and horned oxen — and beautiful maids 
who would wed." 

Nourished on rich milk smelling of the aromatic 
grasses of their pastures, white and pink as the 
apples of their orchards; light-footed and vigorous 
from their mountain life, their dancing and their 
athletic sports, the Gruyere people developed a 
beauty celebrated even in the grave pages of the 
historians. From their hearts warm with the sun, 
their fancy fed by the beauty of their ravishing coun- 
try, issued songs witty and sad, and always melodious 
with their soft Italian vocables, a literature in Ro- 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 41 

mand patois. Thus the golden age of chivalry, 
rhyming harmoniously with the golden age of the 
herdsmen, in the blue circle of the Gruyere heights, 
grew to its noon day. 

Then, suddenly as a tempest gathering across the 
sun pours quick destruction over a parterre of flow- 
ers, black horror swallowed up Gruyere. The 
plague called the Black Death, born in the Levant 
and rushing like a destroying flood with terrifying 
rapidity over the borders of Switzerland, penetrated 
even into the mountain-encircled country of Count 
Pierre. The devils and evil spirits of the caverns 
and the forests seemed now in the imagination of 
the Celtic people to be the sinister authors of this 
mysterious and devastating curse. The youths and 
maidens, no longer dancing to rhymed choruses of 
love and joy, swung wildly in dances of death among 
the abandoned corpses. 

Sprung from the carnival dances, where the 
masked Death forcing the terrified maidens to his 
embrace led them to the cemeteries to celebrate the 
memory of the dead, the priest countenanced these 
masks as religious rites and taught the superstitious 
people that their gifts would ease the souls of those 
sent suddenly unshrived to hell. With solemn 
phrase and syncopated notes, the danse macabre 
wound through the darkened street around the shad- 
owed crucifix up to the chapel door, where in hid- 
eous masks, and dancing still, the hallucinated 



42 The Counts of Gruyere 

people, cast their gold before the altar. "And as the 
coins, tin, tin, fell in the basins, so, ha, ha, hi, hi! 
the poor souls laugh in purgatory." So, taught by 
the priests and prelates ignorant as themselves, the 
sadly altered Gruyere people incessantly danced 
and prayed, sometimes giving themselves to the 
strange lascivious customs to which the whole coun- 
try was abandoned, and sometimes joining in the 
cruel persecution of the Jews, accused of poisoning 
their fountains and their streams. Nothing was 
lacking in the reign of terror which overwhelmed 
Gruyere in the last years of Count Pierre's reign. 
Fires and earthquakes succeeded to the plague, and 
in the midst of their terrors their implacable ene- 
mies, the Bernois, attacked them. 

"O! Misfortune, and three times misfortune, be- 
ware how you touch Berne!" the refrain of an old 
song too often forgotten by Count Pierre, was once 
more exemplified in the revenge which the Bernois 
wreaked upon the Gruyere chateaux of Laubeck 
and Mannenburg, for the thefts of their herds. 

On St. Etienne's day, in the dark December of 
1349, the avenging Bernois took the field, and a thou- 
sand strong assembled before the walls of the twin 
fortresses. Reeling and shouting to the sound of 
fifes and drums, in a gross satire of the dance of the 
fanatic flagellants, they whipped themselves into a 
furious rage and then attacked the walls. Both don- 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 43 

jons, although strongly fortified, fell and were 
destroyed. Unappeased, the Bernois were advanc- 
ing towards Gruyere when their cupidity was 
tempted by offers of rich indemnities by Count 
Pierre's messengers, with whom, together with a 
crowd of prisoners, they returned to Berne. Rage 
and despair as black as this the darkest winter of his 
reign, possessed Count Pierre, but milder counsels 
spoken by the gentle voices of his countess and the 
two sainted Dames de Vaud, Isabelle de Savoie- 
Chalons and her daughter prevailed. Like a trio of 
angels singing over the deathlike darkness and terror 
of the time, they brought peace where there was no 
peace; and with the august assistance of the reigning 
prince of Savoy and the bishop of Lausanne estab- 
lished another Treve de Dieu between the warring 
cities of Berne and Fribourg, and truce between 
Berne and the country of Gruyere. At last, where 
fire and sword, where the power of rival cities and 
proud knights allied, had failed, the love and high 
influence of these noble ladies of the middle age 
most wonderfully succeeded. Memorable for its 
beneficent and permanent effects, the treaty was 
unique for its high and unselfish spirit of concilia- 
tion, and the final words of exhortation which stilled 
the waters tossed by two centuries of storm have the 
sacred accent of heavenly inspiration. 

"The parties in this present treaty shall in all sin- 



44 The Counts of Gruyere 

cerity forget all bitterness, all offence and all re- 
sentment. Secret hate shall give place to the old 
love, which, God helping, shall endure forever." 

Although by this pact Count Pierre's private wars 
were ended, the old warrior, unaffrighted by the 
anthema of excommunication, launched by Pope 
Clement VI against the foes of the archbishop of 
Sion, joined the barons who invaded the Valais at 
the instance of his father-in-law the lord of La Tour 
Chatillon. But this was his last war and during the 
remaining twenty years of his reign he and his peo- 
ple lived together, happily free at last from danger 
of invasion or attack. Dying at eighty, Count Pierre 
ended a reign, shared peacefully with his uncle and 
brother, of over sixty years. Strong and tenacious of 
character, hospitable and courageous as all his acts 
declare, he was the exemplar of all the traits which 
have united to express the typical Gruyere prince, 
and under him his pastoral domain blossomed into 
its climax of idyllic prosperity. Loyal knight and 
brilliant comrade of his suzerain, compassionate 
and kindly master, by his high unflagging gayety, 
his frank and affectionate dealings with his adoring 
subjects, he was the very soul and leader of the as- 
tonishing epopee of revel and of song which has 
made his reign celebrated in the history of Gruy- 
ere. 

His brother- ruler Jeannod, as the years rolled by, 
became water to his wine, as gravely sad as Pierre 



Sovereignty of the House of Savoy 45 

was gay. Three wives preceeded him to the grave, 
all childless, and after a fourth barren marriage 
he bestowed the greater part of his inheritance upon 
the church, and when a few years after his brother's 
death he was carried sumptuously in gold and silken 
sheets to his prepared resting place in the cathedral 
of Lausanne, a multitude of sacred lamps burning 
perpetually in shrines and monasteries over all the 
land celebrated his pious memory and his disap- 
pointments. 



CHAPTER IV 



FOREIGN WARS 

ODOLPHE IV, eldest son of Count 
Pierre, although sole inheritor of the 
title and authority of count, had two 
younger brothers Pierre and Jean, who 
perpetuated the strongly contrasted traits of the 
elder Pierre and Jean. But in the second genera- 
tion the roles were changed. Pierre was the relig- 
ious brother, and became prior of Rougemont, while 
Jean, even more eager for martial glory than his 
father, went far from home to join the English 
armies of Edward III and the Black Prince in their 
wars with Charles V of France. Count Rodolphe, 
surpassing his predecessors in the brilliancy of his 
alliances, married two grand-daughters of Savoy, 
and through his second countess, Marguerite de 
Grandson, was related to the distinguished family 
whose soldiers following Pierre de Savoy to Eng- 

46 




Foreign Wars 47 

land there established a noble line of Grandisson. 
These Grandissons were intimately related with the 
kings of England through the Savoyard Queen 
Eleanor. The glorious progress of the English 
armies, the fame of Crecy, the capture of the King 
of France resounding through all Europe, inflamed 
with chivalric ardor, young Othon de Grandson, 
and in his company Jean de Gruyere, to set out in the 
spring of 1372 for England. Warmly received at 
Windsor, they were present at the fete of St 
George, and assigned a place in the naval forces of 
Lord Pembroke, sailing shortly after with his fleet 
for the western shores of France. Bravely and con- 
fidently enough the English set out for the scene of 
their earlier and easy conquests, but the Black 
Prince, stricken with mortal disease, no longer led 
their armies; Spain under Pedro the Cruel was 
allied with the already disaffected English posses- 
sions in Brittany, and when Pembroke sailed up to 
the harbor of La Rochelle he was attacked by an 
overwhelmingly superior Spanish fleet. 

Recounted immortally in the glowing pages of 
Froissart, is the story of Pembroke's hopeless battle 
with the Spanish fleet. Confiding in the skill and 
valor of his soldiers and bestowing the title of cheva- 
lier on every man among them in the last hour 
before the combat, he gave the signal to advance. It 
was dawn and the tide flowed full, when, with a fav- 
oring wind, the forty great Spanish vessels, bearing 



48 The Counts of Gruyere 

the floating pennons of Castille, advanced to the 
sound of fife and drum in battle line upon the Eng- 
lish fleet. Arrived at close quarters, and grappling 
Pembroke's ships with chains and iron hooks, they 
poured down from their tall towers a rain of stones 
and lead upon the lower and exposed decks of the 
English, who with swords and spears sustained the 
fierce attack all day until darkness fell. With the 
twenty-two newly-made knights who valiantly de- 
fended Pembroke's ship was Jean de Gruyere, and 
when at last, grappled by four great galleons, they 
were boarded and every resisting arm subdued, he 
was taken prisoner with Pembroke. On another ves- 
sel, fighting as bravely, Othon de Grandson was also 
taken prisoner and with Jean de Gruyere was 
transported in captivity to Spain. Dearly paying 
for their ambition and their new titles, they were 
furnished in recompense for their valor with lands 
in Spain by a Burgundian noble, and by industrious 
commercial enterprise paying their ransom and 
their debts, after two years regained their liberty 
and their homes. 

Rodolphe IV, reigning count of Gruyere, dis- 
played in his long career no quality worthy of his 
generous and high spirited father, no trace of the 
conciliatory wisdom or devoted piety of his mother. 
Calculating in his marriages, he was unjust and even 
dishonest with his people, whom he forced to pay 
twice over for their exemptions and their privileges. 



Foreign Wars 49 

Still dishonestly withholding the signed and pur- 
chased acknowledgement of their new privileges 
, from his subjects, he was surprised alone at night in 
the castle by a doughty peasant, who forced the 
paper from his unwilling hands and threw it out 
of the window to a waiting confederate. Left in 
charge of the Savoyard troops who had driven the 
invading Viscounti from the Valais, and entrusted 
with the guardianship of the chateaux and prisoners 
won by the Savoyard arms, he exacted and obtained 
large sums for his services, although those services 
consisted in a complete surprise and defeat at the 
hands of the sturdy inhabitants of the Valais, 
wherein, except for the heroic defence of the very 
subjects he had so oppressed, he would himself have 
perished. From the benefits of the peace which was 
ultimately established in the Valais, these same 
loyal subjects were excluded. 

How greatly Count Rodolphe was lacking in the 
noble and humanitarian qualities which had so gen- 
erally characterized the counts of Gruyere, was 
shown in his dealings with his young relative Othon 
de Grandson. The comrade of his brother, Jean de 
Gruyere, in his French campaigns and in his long 
captivity in Spain, Othon de Grandson was later 
doubly related to Count Rodolphe, as brother-in-law 
of his first wife Marguerite d'Alamandi, and as 
nephew of his second countess, Marguerite de 
Grandson. The tragic hero of an unjust drama of 



50 The Counts of Gruyere 

prosecution which divided in opposing camps the 
nobles of Romand Switzerland, Othon de Grandson 
was falsely accused of complicity in the poisoning 
of Count Amedee VII of Savoy, and although de- 
clared innocent by a royal French tribunal, was 
again implacably accused by his rival in love, Count 
Estavayer, on his return to his estates. Calling God 
to witness that his accuser lied, he consented to de- 
fend and prove his innocence in a trial of arms, 
where, in the presence of his suzerain and of his 
council and knights assembled, he fell mortally 
wounded at the feet of his opponent. No effort was 
made by Count Rodolphe to defend his relative, 
while Rodolphe le Jeune was not only an unprotest- 
ing witness of his undeserved and tragic fate, but the 
purchaser with his father's assistance of the con- 
fiscated Grandson estates. Again, although selling 
the newly acquired chateaux of Oron and Palezieux 
to increase their revenues, the two Rodolphes, in 
total disregard of the rights of the new owners, at- 
tempted to retake them by force of arms, and except 
for the immediate intervention of the count of 
Savoy, would have plunged the newly pacified coun- 
try into a general war. 

An enchanting legend regarding the first wife of 
Count Rodolphe illuminates the dismal story of his 
inglorious reign. Marguerite d'Alamandi has been 
confused in the tradition with Marguerite de 
Grandson, the second wife of Rodolphe. It is Mar- 



Foreign Wars 51 

guerite d'Alamandi, and not the other Marguerite 
who is the heroine of the tale which has been elab- 
orated into a moving little drama by a poet pastor 
of the eighteenth century, and which beautifully 
preserves the customs and the atmosphere of that 
distant time. 

Countess Marguerite of Gruyere, so runs the 
story, was so sadly afflicted that she had borne no 
heir, that she had no longer any joy in her fair castle, 
no comfort with her beloved lord. Vainly journey- 
ing to distant shrines, as vainly invoking the aid of 
sorcerers and magicians, she went one day, clad as 
one of her poor subjects, to pray in the chapel at 
the foot of the Gruyere hill. There, as the Novem- 
ber day was closing, poor Jean the cripple, well 
known through the country, came also to tell his 
beads. Very simple and kindly was poor Jean, with 
always the same blessing for those who gave him 
food or mocked him with cruel jeers. Perceiving in 
the shadow a poor woman sadly weeping, he gave 
her all his day's begging, a piece of black bread 
with a morsel of coarse cheese, repeating his usual 
blessing, "May God and our Lady grant thee all thy 
noble heart desires." That evening, again clad in 
her jewels and brocades, the Countess Marguerite, 
at the close of a feast laid for her husband's com- 
rades after a day at the chase, offered each knight 
a bit of this bread and cheese, with a moving story 
of poor Jean and a prayer that all should wish what 



52 The Counts of Gruyere 

her heart so long and vainly had desired. Nine 
months later, so concludes the tale, a fair son and 
heir was born to the happy dame. On the walls of 
the Hall of the Chevaliers, among the painted le- 
gends of the house, poor Jean and Countess Mar- 
guerite live in pictured memory; and a room next 
the great kitchen of the chateau, called by the crip- 
ple's name, has been pointed out for many genera- 
tions as the spot where, fed on the fat of the land, he 
enjoyed the bounty of the countess during the re- 
mainder of his days. 

Rodolphe le Jeune, the long awaited heir of this 
story, did not live to inherit the rule of the domain 
whose fame his father had so sadly stained. Bril- 
liantly educated at the court of Savoy, and later the 
councilor of the countess regent, he emulated his 
uncle's heroic example and joined the English arm- 
ies under Buckingham in France, there winning 
praise and the offer of the chevalier's accolade. But 
he failed to fulfil the promise of his youth and died 
prematurely, leaving his young son Antoine, the 
last hope of the family, to succeed to his grand- 
father. Count Antoine's overlord, the youthful 
count of Savoy, confided the education of his vas- 
sal and protege to a venerable prelate of Lausanne; 
but heeding nothing of his pious instructions the 
young ruler wasted his revenues in extravagant hos- 
pitality, lived gaily with his mistresses, and 
celebrated the weddings of his two sisters with fam- 



Foreign Wars 53 

ous feasting and generous marriage gifts. Unlike 
his predecessors, who shared the rule of Gruyere 
with brothers or sons, he reigned alone, and gave 
himself wholly to the ambition of maintaining the 
pleasure-loving reputation of his house. More than 
ever under Count Antoine was Gruyere a court of 
love. The numerous and beautiful children of his 
mistresses filled the castle with their youthful gayety 
and charm, and his two splendid sons, Frangois 
and Jean, proudly acknowledged by their father and 
legitimized with the sanction of the pope, took their 
place among the young nobles of the country as 
heirs of the Gruyere possessions. Again the gay 
Coraules of flower-crowned shepherds and maids 
wound over the valleys and hills. Again minstrels 
and chroniclers recorded and sang the lovely tra- 
ditions of their pastoral life. 

"Gruyere, sweet country, fresh and verdant Gruyere 
Did thy children imagine how happy they were? 
Did thy shepherds know they lived an idyll? 
Had they read Theocrite, had they heard of Vir- 
gil? 

No, no! as in gardens the lilac and rose 
Grow in innocent beauty, their days drew to a 
close." 

So in a fond ecstasy of recollection, sings a 



54 The Counts of Gruyere 

Romand poet, and thus in the famous lines of 
Uhland is related the Coraule of Count Antoine. 

The Count of Gruyere 

Before his high manor, the Count of Gruyere, 
One morning in Maytime looked over the land. 
Rocky peaks, rose and gold, with the dawning were 
fair, 

In the valleys night still held command. 

"Oh! Mountains! you call to your pastures so green, 
Where the shepherds and maids wander free, 
And while often, unmoved, your smiles I have seen, 
Ah ! to-day 'tis with you I would be." 

Then afloat on the breeze, there came to his ear, 
Sweet pipes faintly blowing — still distant the 
sounds 

As across the deep valley, each with his dear, 
Came the shepherds, dancing their rounds. 

And now on the green sward they danced and they 
sang, 

In their holiday gowns, a pretty parterre, 
With oft sounding echoes the castle walls rang, 
To the joy of the Count of Gruyere. 

Then slim as a lily, a beauteous maid, 

Took the Count by the hand to join the gay throng. 



Foreign Wars 55 

"And now you're our captive, sweet master," she 
said, 

"And our leader in dancing and song." 

Then, the Count at the head, away they all went, 
A-singing and dancing, through forest and dell. 
O'er valleys and hillsides, with force all unspent, 
Till the sun set and starry night fell. 

The first day fled fast, and the second dawned fair, 
The third was declining, when over the hills 
Quick lightning flashed whitely — the Count was not 
there! 

"Has he vanished?" they asked of the rills. 

The black storm clouds have burst, the streams are 
like blood 

By the red lightning's glare, and dark night is rent, 
Oh, look! where our lost one fights hard with the 
flood, 

Until a branch saves him, pale and spent. 

"The mountains which drew me with smiles to their 
heights, 

With thunders have kept me, their lover, at bay. 
Their streams have engulfed me, not these the de- 
lights 

I dreamed of, dancing the hours away. 



56 The Counts of Gruyere 

"Farewell, ye green Alps! youths and maidens so 
gay, 

Farewell ! happy days when a shepherd was I, 
Stern fates I have questioned have answered me nay, 
So I leave ye, with smiles and a sigh. 

"My poor heart's still burning, the dance tempts me 
yet, 

So ask me no longer, my lily, my belle! 
For you, love and frolic, but I must forget, 
Take me back, then, my frowning castel." 

No attacks from feudal lords or from rival cities 
threatened Gruyere during the reign of Count An- 
toine, which came to its end in undisturbed tran- 
quility. The kindly and complaisant father, brother 
and lover essayed as he grew in years to correct some 
of the follies of his youth, and according to the opin- 
ion of Gruyere's principal historian married the 
mother of the children he had already legitimized. 
A pious and lamenting widower, he instituted many 
masses and anniversaries for the repose of the soul 
of his wife, the Countess Jeanne de Noyer of blessed 
memory; and erecting a chapel to his patron St. 
Antoine in the parochial church of Gruyere caused 
to be painted therein the kneeling portraits of him- 
self and his countess, in perpetual testimony of his 
devotion to the rites of matrimony and religion. 



CHAPTER V 



THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Frangois I) 

HE inheritance of the estates Count An- 
toine had so diminished by his improvi- 
dent generosity was bitterly contested by 
the husbands of his two sisters, but the 
duke of Savoy did not hesitate to recognize the 
rights of his legitimized descendants, and Frangois 
I of Gruyere and his brother Jean of Montsalvens 
entered without difficulty into the enjoyment of their 
inheritances. Count Frangois, flower of the race of 
pastoral kings, presents one more historical example 
of the brilliant intellect, of the abounding vitality 
and extraordinary beauty with which nature — un- 
heeding law — seems unwisely to sanction the over- 
whelming preference and inclination of unmarried 
lovers. A celebrated chronicler of Zurich who had 
seen the famous personage whom the historians 
describe as "the handsomest noble in Romand 

57 




58 The Counts of Gruyere 

Switzerland," records in Latin how greatly he ex- 
ceeded in his noble proportions and mighty stature 
the majority of mankind, and spoke? also of his 
armor, fit for giants, which was long preserved in 
the chateau of Gruyere. 

Becoming in his youth the favorite companion 
and support of Amedee IX, during his early years 
in Italy, he was entrusted by that gentle ruler, when 
he acceded to the ducal throne of Savoy, with every 
important office in his domain. Governor and 
Bailli of Vaud, "conseiller" and "chambellan" of the 
court, he was chatelain of Moudon and Faucigny, 
military governor of the great fortress of Montbel- 
iard; and finally, as marechal of Savoy, became the 
general-in-chief of all his forces. When Amedee, 
resigning his flute playing and his many charities, 
returned to Italy and abandoned his throne to the 
Duchess Yolande — worthy sister of Louis the XI 
of France — Frangois de Gruyere was still the prin- 
cipal support of the throne. The virtual governor 
by reason of his judicial and military administration 
of the whole duchy of Savoy, Count Francois of 
Gruyere did not neglect to continue and to 
strengthen the amicable relations of his house with 
Fribourg. Winning prizes in its tournaments, tak- 
ing part in all its fetes and often dwelling in the 
imposing chateau which he had erected within its 
gates, he became a personage of the utmost import- 
ance and influence with the city authorities, and per- 



The Burgundian Wars 59 

suaded them to renounce their alliance with the 
dukes of Austria and swear allegiance to Savoy. In 
the triumphal entry which he made therein, on the 
occasion of the formal signing of its vassalage to its 
new suzerain, his splendid appearance as he ad- 
vanced mounted and in armor, followed by the 
bishop of Lausanne, the court of justice and all the 
authorities of Fribourg, is recorded in the annals of 
the city. Equally respected at Berne, he indefatig- 
ably labored with the proud and stiffnecked council 
of its citizens until they also consented to form an al- 
liance with Savoy. But although frequently residing 
at Fribourg or at the ducal court of Chambery, and 
absent for the most part in the administration of his 
multifarious offices, he did not forget Gruyere, 
where he wisely and economically regulated the 
finances, increased and improved the herds, and ef- 
fectually restrained the people in their habitual 
depredations upon the possessions of Berne and Fri- 
bourg. 

But Switzerland, the battlefield of so many war- 
ring powers, was now to become the scene of a 
European drama, of rival principalities and poten- 
tates avid of world control — a family tragedy of the 
related rulers of France, Germany, Burgundy 
and Savoy. By his delegated rule of the latter coun- 
try, Francois de Gruyere, although playing his part 
only in the prologue, took his place beside the great 
figures of the Emperor Ferdinand of Germany, 



6o 



The Counts of Gruyere 



Louis XI of France, the Duchess Yolande and their 
magnificent cousin Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 
Sent by his father, Charles VII of France, at the 
head of the redoubtable Armagnacs, to help the 
German emperor to subdue the Confederated Can- 
tons, the dauphin Louis XI had such a taste of the 
quality of the Swiss soldier as he was never after- 
wards to forget, when, at the battle of St. Jacques, 
fighting as heroes never fought before, snatching 
the arrows from their bleeding wounds, battling to 
the last, fourteen hundred Swiss despatched eight 
thousand French and Austrians with eleven hundred 
of their horses. Such soldiers Louis XI preferred 
as allies rather than antagonists and, when he suc- 
ceeded to the throne made haste to attach them to 
his cause. He was wiser in this than his sister Yo- 
lande, who assured of the precious alliance with the 
leading cities of the Swiss Confederates, lately so 
ably negotiated by the count of Gruyere, paid less 
attention to preserving their friendship, than to her 
ambitious designs upon the vast territories and un- 
told wealth of Burgundy. These territories she 
dreamed of annexing to Savoy through a marriage 
with Marie, daughter and heiress of Duke Charles 
and her young son Philibert, and for this reason took 
sides with the duke against France and her treacher- 
ous brother. Taking Hannibal and Alexander as 
his models, the duke of Burgundy, already ruler of 
the Flemish provinces and the richest potentate in 



The Burgundian Wars 6i 

Europe, dreamed of a kingdom which should extend 
from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and as far 
as the borders of the Rhine. With the alliance of 
the German emperor, he saw the possibility of a 
still further extension of his power, and for this 
reason promised his daughter to the heir of the em- 
pire, Maximilian. With the passing of her hopes 
for this coveted marriage alliance, the Duchess 
Yolande was content to maintain her alliance with 
Duke Charles, and to preserve her regency under 
his protection and support, little dreaming of the 
swift and terrible destruction which awaited him in 
the shadow of the Alps. 

That destruction stealthily prepared by all the 
arts at the command of the most malevolently skil- 
ful monarch who ever wore a crown, was not at the 
outset so lightly defied by the great duke of Bur- 
gundy, who had no mind to alienate the country of 
Romand Switzerland, which had originally formed 
a part of his own domain, and was still allied to its 
divided half by a common language and centuries 
of amicable commercial relations. Supported by 
the Duchess Yolande, he was still more closely allied 
with his brother-in-law, the able Jacques de Savoy, 
who was count of Romont and ruler of the whole 
Savoyard country of Vaud. An early comrade of 
Duke Charles, he had been appointed marechal of 
his Flemish provinces, and by this office maintained 
the close relations between Romand Switzerland 



62 The Counts of Gruyere 

and Burgundy. But Louis devilishly and implac- 
ably planning his rival cousin's ruin, sowed dissen- 
tion between the confederated cities and their lately 
acknowledged suzerain the duchess of Savoy. De- 
termined to attach to himself the indomitable Swiss 
soldiers, he bought with pensions and unlimited 
promises the alliance of Berne and Fribourg and the 
associated cantons of German Switzerland. 

Divided between French and German-speaking 
inhabitants, the French citizens in the two cities who 
were loyal to Savoy and sympathetic with their Bur- 
gundian cousins, were outwitted by Louis' agent, 
his former page Nicholas de Diesbach. In Octo- 
ber of the year 1474, the adherents of Louis in Berne 
had so prevailed that war was formally declared 
against Burgundy by the confederates, and in No- 
vember before the fortress of Hericourt, Louis' 
brother-in-law the Archduke Sigismund of Austria, 
with the assistance of the Bernois, inflicted the first 
bloody defeat upon Duke Charles. Messengers were 
then sent by Charles to Berne to treat for peace but 
with no result, and two months later the Bernois, 
w T ho had already seized a Savoy fortress in the Jura, 
took possession of three chateaux in the Pays de 
Vaud belonging to Count Romont. Justly indig- 
nant at this invasion of the Savoy territory, the 
duchess sent the Count de Gruyere to Berne to re- 
monstrate against the infraction of the still existing 
alliance with her house. A strange reception was 



The Burgundian Wars 63 

accorded him. No penitence for the unwarranted 
attack upon the Savoy fortresses, but an insolent ulti- 
matum, declaring instant war unless she immedi- 
ately recalled Count Romont from his command in 
the Flemish provinces, and herself declared war 
upon Duke Charles. No more Lombard soldiers of 
Duke Charles were to be permitted to pass through 
the Bernese territories, but Swiss soldiers unarmed 
or armed should pass at their discretion. Equally 
unsuccessful with Fribourg, the duchess, wonder- 
ing "whence came the evil wind which had blown 
upon the two cities," heeded no one of the commands 
which had been issued by Berne, and, as double- 
faced though far less skilful than her brother, still 
continued to negotiate with the two cities, still per- 
mitted the Lombard troops to pass. The result was 
that the Bernois addressed themselves directly to the 
count of Gruyere, whom they had already forbid- 
den to take sides with Burgundy, holding him per- 
sonally responsible for the passage of the Lombards 
and threatening instant invasion of his estates. 
Count Frangois now addressed his friends of Fri- 
bourg, asserting that he had forbidden the passage 
of the troops and so far influenced the city authori- 
ties that they sent their advocate to their allies of 
Berne, asking to be released from bearing arms 
against Duke Charles. 

But this was the utmost that he could accomplish 
for his hesitating and untrustworthy mistress, and 



64 The Counts of Gruyere 

with the refusal of Berne to release Fribourg from 
assisting them in their war against Duke Charles, 
he permitted his subjects to form new treaties with 
the cities by which, though refusing to bear arms 
against Savoy, they were bound to join in the war 
against Burgundy. 

That the Duchess Yolande could not fail to 
suffer in the defeat of her allies was no less plain 
to her than to her general, and threatened with re- 
prisals, seeing the storm gather about his head, 
Count Francois, sick of heart and of body, retired 
to his chateau. There, fortunate in that he was 
spared the necessity of openly bearing arms against 
the duchy he had so long and ably governed, he died 
in the very moment of the outbreak of the impend- 
ing conflict. 

The most illustrious of the sovereigns who pre- 
sided over the destinies of Gruyere, Frangois I has 
left an imperishable memory and bore a unique 
role in the history of the fifteenth century in Swit- 
zerland. By a personal force and ability surpass- 
ing any of the nobles of his time, he justified the con- 
fidence of the suzerains he successively served. 
Everything possible was accomplished under his ad- 
ministration for the duchy of Savoy, torn between 
such powers as Burgundy and France. Gloved in 
velvet, the hand of Frangois was of iron, but a rare 
judgment and discretion characterized him, so that 
whether as supreme judge, presiding as his suzer- 



The Burgundian Wars 65 

ain's delegate over the tribunals of Fribourg, or as 
general holding the Savoy fortresses and the Savoy 
armies in readiness for defence, he supported the 
reign of law and justice in the land, and so long as 
he lived succeeded in keeping the Savoy rulers on 
their ducal throne. Never had Gruyere enjoyed 
such a rule, and greatly did it redound to his credit 
that his little pastoral domain was preserved in 
growing prosperity and independence between the 
threatening and ambitious republics of Berne and 
Fribourg. Even in the days of his brilliant youth 
when he brought his Italian bride, the noble Bonne 
da Costa, from among the ladies of the Piemontaise 
court of Savoy, to share with him the pleasures of 
his charming little domain, he showed how strong a 
defender he could be of its liberties and possessions. 
For when threatened by the Fribourgeois he sent 
them such a message, declaring that war if they 
wished it should be waged with "sword and fire," 
as sufficed effectually to calm the turbulent disturb- 
ers of the peace, and induce the city authorities to 
the pacific relations which thereafter were estab- 
lished. Again when the succession of a prince of 
Savoy was contested for the bishopric of Lausanne, 
he superbly cut short the deliberations of the coun- 
cil of prelates, saying, "Why bargain thus? 
Whether they wish it or not, he shall be bishop." 

The Savoy possessions suffered no curtailment 
during his administration, and no flower fell from 



66 



The Counts of Gruyere 



the Gruyere crown while he so splendidly wore it, 
but many liberties harmonious with the growing re- 
publicanism of Switzerland were voluntarily 
granted to his beloved subjects, who inconsolably 
lamented their loss when the noble features and tow- 
ering form of their incomparable ruler were shut 
forever from mortal sight in the church under the 
Gruyere hill. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE BURGUNDIAN WARS (Count Louis) 

MONG the many benefits with which 
Count Frangois' ability and sagacity had 
enriched his inherited estates were the 
acquisition of the seigneuries of Grand- 
cour and Aigremont, and the repurchase of the 
beautiful castles of Oron and Aubonne. The two 
latter residences were assigned during his life to 
his two sons Louis and Frangois, Louis being early 
established at Aubonne, and Frangois becoming 
seigneur of Oron. Louis, worthy successor of his 
father, passed at Aubonne by the shores of lake 
Leman a youth of peace and happiness. Writing 
from thence to his young wife Claude de Seyssel, 
a daughter of an illustrious knight of Savoy, Louis 
showed in the following intimate little letter, the 
charming nature he had inherited from his parents. 

67 




68 The Counts of Gruyere 

Ma Mie, 

I recommend myself to thee. I have thy let- 
ter sent by Gachet, and I think that my wish to 
see thee is as great as thine to see me, but I must 
still delay a little. Ma Mie, I recommend to 
thee the little one, my horse and all the house- 
hold. Recommend me to our good Aunt Aigre- 
mont, to her sister and to M. Aigremont and 
the nurse, to the maid and Perrisont. Ma Mie, 
please God, to give thee a good and long life 
and all thy heart desires. 

Written at Aubonne, the morrow of St. Cath- 
erine's day. 

Louis de Gruyere, 
All thine. 

A Ma Mie. 

The joy of this happy household, of kind relatives 
and devoted servants, was soon broken by the early 
death of the child, their first-born son, Georges, who 
was taken from his parents six years before their 
accession to the rule and responsibilities of their 
estates. The birth of two other children, Frangois 
and a daughter Helene, had consoled them, and it 
was a truly "joyeuse entree" which they made on a 
beautiful July Sunday in the year 1475 to the square 
before the Gruyere church, formally to take posses- 
sion of their domain according to the ancient custom 
of their predecessors. The herald crying out the 
summons of the count, his subjects, who had col- 
lected from towns and villages and valleys, raised 



The Burgundian Wars 69 

their hands and swore fidelity. Count Louis, with 
his hand on the holy book, promised to protect them ; 
and the standard-bearer, waving the silver crane, 
declared that their flag should lead them against all 
their foes. Three months only were to pass before 
this banner took the field, for the storm clouds ap- 
proaching from the neighboring kingdoms of Bur- 
gundy and France were thundering now over 
Switzerland, and the bitter rivalries of Duke 
Charles and his cousin of France had now reached 
the moment of collision on Helvetian soil. Fortified 
by a renewal of his alliance with the German em- 
peror, the duke of Burgundy, eager to chastise the 
Confederates who had dared to defy his imperial 
ally and who had humiliated him at Hericourt, 
prepared to invade Switzerland. But Louis, the 
diabolus ex machina, who had secretly fostered the 
discord. between Burgundy and the Confederates, 
hastily signed a nine-years' truce with Charles, and 
remarking with his usual sardonic smile that his 
"fair cousin did not know his foes," left him and his 
sister to the tender mercies of the enemies he had 
arrayed against them. A clause in the treaty which 
preserved Louis from all participation in the im- 
pending conflict, stipulated that Savoy and the Con- 
federates should be included in the peace, provided 
that they committed no single act of depredation or 
hostility for a period of three months. Secretly 
subsidized by Louis with ample funds to prosecute 



70 The Counts of Gruyere 

the war, the Confederates immediately sought a pre- 
text for the attack upon the possessions of Savoy, and 
found one ready to their hand in the confiscation 
by Count Romont of the celebrated contrabrand 
load of German sheepskins carried illegally through 
his country by some Bernese carters. Calling to 
their aid the inhabitants of the Valais, who had 
long resented the suzerainty of Savoy, they prepared 
to march against the duchess and Count Romont. 
The frightened duchess now again attempted to 
negotiate with this strong combination, when the 
news of Duke Charles' advance with a splendid 
army dissipated her fears, and she openly declared 
for Burgundy and sent her forces to join those of 
Charles. Another cause involving the count of 
Gruyere precipitated the internal quarrels of Savoy 
and the Confederates. Count Romont, incited by 
the jealousy of the family of de Vergy, which 
(through their alliance with the sisters of Count 
Antoine de Gruyere, had disputed the inheritance of 
his legitimized successor Frangois) pillaged and 
captured the Gruyere chateaux of Oron, Aubonne 
and Palezieux, and Duke Charles sent a force of 
Burgundian and Savoyard soldiers to invade Gruy- 
ere itself. Calling his friends the Fribourgeois to 
his side, Count Louis met and conquered this army, 
capturing a banner which is still preserved in the 
church at Lessoc. No further hesitation was there- 
after possible for the ruler of Gruyere, who was 



The Burgundian Wars 71 

thus compelled to take sides against the duchess if 
he wished to preserve his country from dismember- 
ment and the cruel and ferocious devastation which 
the Confederates were now inflicting upon the beau- 
tiful country of Romand Switzerland, and particu- 
larly upon the country of Vaud, the apanage of 
Duke Charles' marechal, Count Romont. For, fully 
supplied with funds by Louis, nothing could arrest 
the German inhabitants of Fribourg and Berne, 
who, in a three-weeks' campaign of murder, vio- 
lence and pillage, utterly devastated and conquered 
the above provinces, burning the chateaux, decapi- 
tating their defenders and soiling the reputation of 
the Swiss soldier by inexcusable acts of cupidity and 
ferocity. Never was so venal and brutal a war 
waged at the will of a foreign and detestably traitor- 
ous king, and the coming of the great Duke Charles 
was awaited by all the inhabitants of the Romand 
country as a welcome deliverance from the hated 
Bernois. Postponing his Italian campaign, Duke 
Charles, deaf to his advisers and eager to chastise 
the cruel depredations of the "insolent cowherds" 
he so despised, started from Nancy with his magnifi- 
cent army in midwinter of the year 1476 as for a 
brief pleasure excursion, and laid siege to Grandson 
which had been captured by the Bernois. After a 
stubborn resistance the Bernois garrison, promised 
pardon by a venal German volunteer of the Bur- 
gundian cause, surrendered only to suffer the same 



72 The Counts of Gruyere 

cruel fate which they had dealt to the defenders of 
the Savoy fortresses. But now flocking to the aid 
of their confederates came the unconquerable victors 
of the Austrian dukes, the Waldstetten ; and the horn 
of the Alps with the same fatal clarion led the moun- 
taineers from the heights above Grandson to their 
old victory over the nobles, and to the surprising 
defeat of such an army of wealth and kingly power 
as the world had not seen since Xerxes. Massed in 
his jeweled tents and golden chapel were the treas- 
ures of the richest potentate in all Europe; harnesses 
and habiliments of gold and velvet, tapestries and 
gemmed crowns and orders, ropes of pearls, rubies 
and diamonds (which still glorify the tiaras of the 
pope and emperors) — all these were sold for a few 
sous or were trampled in the snow by the ignorant 
shepherds and cowherds of the Alps. After such 
an unimaginable tragedy, Duke Charles, like a 
beaten child, weeping with rage and sick with de- 
spair, at last roused himself to send with the consent 
of the Duchess Yolande a deputation to treat with the 
Confederates; and this deputation was sent to Count 
Louis of Gruyere. Announcing this extraordinary 
event to the authorities at Fribourg, he wrote: "It 
is true that I received last Saturday a letter from 
M. de Viry, with a sauf-conduit, to take me to 
Vauruz, to talk of peace. When asked what author- 
ity I had to act for you, Gentlemen of Fribourg, I 
replied that I had none whatsoever. I said, more- 



i 



The Burgundian Wars 73 

over, that I could not engage to approach you with- 
out the written consent of M. de Bourgogne, but 
that I would, with this guarantee, work body and 
soul in the matter. These gentlemen assured me on 
their honor that they would not have spoken without 
his consent, but I answered that trusting them in 
all else, I would have nothing further to do with 
their propositions without this writing from the 
Duke. Whereupon, it was agreed that M. de Viry, 
who was to dine with Madame (the Duchess Yo- 
lande) to-day at Lausanne, would send me news 
by this Tuesday or Wednesday." 

Repeating in this communication the report that 
Duke Charles had recovered from his illness and 
would be within a mile of Fribourg in a few days, 
Count Louis added that a trusted agent of his own 
had been sent to the duke's camp and had re- 
ported that he was still ill, that his artillery was in 
poor condition and that some of his supporters had 
deserted him. Ill as he was, Duke Charles, hastily 
collecting a new army to avenge his defeat and too 
proud to confide to paper his real desire for peace, 
refused the condition of Count Louis, sending a 
haughty reply that "he was not accustomed to make 
advances to his foes, that he was, nevertheless, dis- 
posed particularly to make terms with Fribourg but 
not with its confederates." Thus the pride which 
was the origin of all his woes caused Duke Charles 
to reject the mediator who would have worked with 



74 The Counts of Gruyere 

"soul and body" for his welfare, and thus vanished 
the fair prospect of peace between Burgundy and 
the Confederates. Although the latter had been vic- 
torious at Grandson, the country captured in their 
three-weeks' campaign had in a still shorter time 
been recaptured by the Savoyards, and a strong 
party in Romand Switzerland was opposed to them. 
At this juncture, the German emperor, twice fore- 
sworn, deserted their ally the Archduke Sigismond, 
and the Bernois, alarmed for the safety of their city, 
hastily invoked the promised aid of Louis XI. No 
answer came from their perfidious ally and the Swiss 
Confederates, alone at last, were left to defend their 
own country and their freedom. Emperor and king 
alike were absent, all their machinations finished, 
and although on the memorable day of Morat, 
Savoy was pitted against its own cities, and the Con- 
federates against their Burgundian cousins in as 
unnatural and unnecessary a conflict as ever divided 
ancient friends, the Swiss soldiers then immortally 
testified to their patriotism and their valor. 

Three months had passed since Grandson and 
Duke Charles had succeeded in assembling a new 
army — less in numbers than that which had there 
been annihilated — a motley force of Savoyards and 
discontented Italian mercenaries ready to desert his 
cause, but containing three thousand English under 
Somerset who were eager to fight with the enemy 
of France. The duke, still ill and half insane with 



The Burgundian Wars 75 

fury and the determination to avenge his defeat, was 
in no condition easily to accomplish that revenge. 
He was determined to let no further time elapse, 
therefore he assembled these forces and established 
his fortified camp within a mile of the little city of 
Morat, held by a Bernese garrison. Magnificently 
fighting before the great breaches in the defending 
walls, the Bernese held the city during ten long days, 
giving time for their confederates to assemble be- 
hind the hills which concealed their approach from 
the Burgundian camp. Six thousand more men of 
Berne were joined by the Waldstetten mountaineers, 
the German troops of Archduke Sigismund, one 
hundred horse and six hundred foot from Gruyere, 
"all men of great stature, athletic force and indomi- 
table courage;" and, lastly, by the men of Zurich, 
who had marched day and night to swell this army 
of 24,000 which were to meet a like number of Bur- 
gundians. On the 22nd day of June, the anniversary 
of the death of the ten thousand martyrs who had 
fallen at Laupen, their descendants prepared with 
masses and with prayers to avenge their death. It 
was a day of pelting rain, and when the Burgun- 
dians, advancing to the attack, had waited six hours 
under the downpour for any sign of an approaching 
foe, they retired to their camp with soaked powder 
and loosened bow-strings at the very moment when 
the clouds dispersed and the sudden sunshine illum- 
inated the serried pikes of the Swiss as they ad- 



76 The Counts of Gruyere 

vanced in unexpected numbers over the crest of the 
hills. Duke Charles had retired to his tent and was 
surprised at table by a messenger announcing the 
imminent attack of the enemy. He was compelled to 
don his armor on the battlefield itself where he took 
command of his confused ill-arranged forces, fight- 
ing beside the English soldiers under Somerset in 
the thick of the battle as it raged about the green 
hedge and little moat which divided the two armies. 
Against them was Duke Rene, battling with the 
Swiss to regain his lost Lorraine, and Louis of Gruy- 
ere with his brave soldiers. Many times the Swiss 
halberdiers were driven back under the fire of the 
Burgundian artillery, as many times the Burgundian 
cavalry charged with brilliant success, and a hope of 
regaining his lost honor began to smile upon Duke 
Charles, when a terrible clamor arose from the very 
midst of his camp. Again the horn of the Alps, 
the loud appalling roar of the "Bull of Uri," the 
"Cow of Unterwalden," which had overwhelmed 
in panic terror the Austrian knights at Sempach and 
Morgarten and which the Burgundians themselves 
had heard at Grandson, fell upon their ears; and 
quickly following the crash of their own guns which 
had been captured and turned upon themselves by 
their own adversaries, the mountaineers of the 
Waldstetten. At the hedge, in the very centre of 
the conflict, Duke Charles and Somerset still desper- 
ately encouraged their men to a hopeless resistance. 



The Burgundian Wars 77 

Here in the midst of the carnage was Duke Rene, 
leaping from his fallen horse and fighting by the 
side of Count Louis under the scarlet banner of 
Gruyere; here fell Somerset and here fell at last the 
great banner of Burgundy in the arms of its dying 
defender. 

Soon the Burgundians were completely sur- 
ounded by the rear-guard of the Swiss, and by the 
Morat garrison, and Duke Charles breaking his way 
through his beaten and disorganized army with a 
force of three thousand cavalry, succeeded in mak- 
ing his escape. Red was the water of the little lake 
where, in a mad retreat, the Burgundians were 
drowned in thousands; red was the battlefield 
where, after all hope was gone, a still greater num- 
ber were massacred in cold blood by the implacable 
Swiss. "Cruel as Morat" was the saying which, 
passing into common speech, commemorated for 
centuries this unforgotten conflict. 

Ill-prepared to meet the united and well-nigh un- 
conquerable Swiss as was Duke Charles, the irre- 
mediable defeat which he suffered in this celebrated 
battle might have been averted. But like a pre- 
destined victim of the gods, driven mad by pride, 
and surrounded by rumors of the desertion of his 
supporters, he had most unhappily chosen the only 
Savoyard prince who was unalterably faithful to 
him, for his distrust, and had forbidden Count 
Romont and his strong army of nine thousand men 



78 The Counts of Gruyere 

to take part in the conflict. Thus the able general 
and the fresh, unbroken force which might have 
saved the day watched from a neighboring hill the 
the annihilation of the Burgundian army. Retiring 
at last from his post of observation when he saw the 
great banner fall, Count Romont offered to cover 
the retreat of the duke, who, still refusing his aid 
although deserted by all but a dozen of his guard, 
fled madly across country, taking refuge at last at 
Morges. The fleeing remnant of his army was pur- 
sued by the Lorraine and Gruyere cavalry to 
Avenches, Count Romont and his Savoyards alone 
escaping the general destruction ; while Count Louis 
of Gruyere, still riding triumphantly at the head of 
his horsemen, as far as Lausanne, laid that city under 
contribution. The appetite of the Bernois was by no 
means appeased by the great spoils of the Burgun- 
dian army, and in spite of the injunction of Louis 
the XI, who did not intend to lose the jurisdiction of 
Savoy, they again took the field, capturing Payerne, 
burning Surpierre and Lucens; while the chateau 
of Romont, besieged by their allies of Fribourg 
and defended gallantly to the last by Count Romont 
himself, fell also. At Lausanne, the rage and cupid- 
ity of the Bernois knew no restraint, and the city and 
cathedral were sacked remorselessly, thus bringing 
to an end an utterly unwarranted campaign of wan- 
ton destruction. 

Duchess Yolande, who had hastened to the re- 



The Burgundian Wars 79 

lief of Duke Charles, was also so suspected by her 
defeated ally that he caused her to be arrested by 
his maitre d'hotel and some brutal Italian soldiers 
and cast into the Burgundian fortress of Rouvres, 
whence, finally convinced that her brother was the 
most powerful as well as the most friendly of her 
foes, she appealed to him for deliverance. Brought 
by his agents to France after three months' imprison- 
ment, Louis summoned her to his presence at Ples- 
sis-les-Tours : "Madame la Bourguignonne," he 
said with his evil smile, "you are welcome." "I am 
a good French woman," replied his sister, "and 
ready to obey the will of your Majesty." 

Whether, as has been recorded, Louis really loved 
his sister, who was almost as able and far more at- 
tractive than himself, he kept her in strict imprison- 
ment until she signed a paper of perpetual fidelity to 
him, and then he sent her back to Savoy and re- 
established her on her ducal throne. The prince 
bishop of Geneva was even more eager than his sis- 
ter-in-law to desert Duke Charles, and fearing that 
his city would suffer the fate of Lausanne, offered 
to assist the Bernois in invading Burgundy, there 
to complete the duke's destruction; whereupon the 
Bernois at the price of an enormous indemnity con- 
sented to spare Geneva, and to cease all further 
conquests in the Pays de Vaud. They also agreed, 
under the repeated commands of King Louis to 
send their deputies to a convention of the ambassa- 



8o The Counts of Gruyere 

dors of all the powers to meet at Fribourg in July, 
1476. A great and imposing company were these 
ambassadors, who from France and Austria, Savoy, 
and the confederated cities and cantons of Switzer- 
land met to treat of the long needed peace. Among 
them were Duke Rene of Lorraine and Count Louis 
of Gruyere, who together with a representative of 
Archduke Sigismund, were chosen as arbitrators 
to decide the terms of the proposed treaty. Acting 
for Savoy, the count of Gruyere, who only by force 
majeure had sided with its foes, now ably and hap- 
pily proved his real fidelity to its interests, providing 
for the restoration of all its possessions in the Pays 
de Vaud. At a second conference at Annecy, when 
the alliance between the Confederates and Savoy 
was amicably regulated, he was also present, receiv- 
ing from the Genevan delegates rich donations for 
his invaluable services. For Duke Charles, also 
Count Louis was as before willing to negotiate a 
peace with Fribourg, but when a second deputation 
of the same messengers whom the duke had before 
despatched to him, was again unable to furnish the 
written authority he required, he was once more 
unable to mediate on the duke's behalf. But when 
his friend and co-arbitrator, Duke Rene of Lor- 
raine, appealed for assistance to the Swiss to repel 
Duke Charles' final attack upon his duchy, no an- 
swer was forthcoming from Gruyere, and among 
the German-Swiss confederates at whose hands 



The Burgundian Wars 8i 

Duke Charles suffered his cruel death before the 
walls of Nancy, Count Louis' soldiers had no part. 
Small benefit was destined to accrue, as the history 
of Europe unrolled through the succeeding years, 
from the fall of the house of Burgundy. For while 
Louis XI by his evil plotting had enlarged his king- 
dom, by obliterating the barrier of Burgundy be- 
tween France and Austria he had at the same time 
made way for centuries of wars. "Here," said the 
15th Louis before the tomb of the last duke of Bur- 
gundy, "is the cradle of all our wars." As 
for Switzerland, the system of mercenary service 
inaugurated by Louis debased its honor and divided 
its sons, who, fighting in the opposing armies of 
Europe, delayed for many years the development 
and the independence of their country. For a few 
years only, Savoy and Romand Switzerland en- 
joyed peace. Duchess Yolande, although still 
threatened by the Savoy princes, was sustained upon 
the throne by her brother who in this one instance 
was faithful to his promises. She reestablished the 
customs of the ducal court and organized plays and 
festivities; and surrounding herself with a train of 
musicians, with the soothing sounds of flutes and 
harps, attempted to forget the fierce trials and tu- 
mults of her reign. But her spirit and her strength 
were broken, and, succumbing to an early death, 
she left her young son Philibert to succeed to the 
duchy under the governorship of the Count de la 



82 The Counts of Gruyere 

Chambre, who had been chosen by King Louis. The 
influence of this agent, however, became too great 
for the designing king who intended to preserve his 
jurisdiction over Savoy. He, therefore, instigated a 
revolt in the Piemontaise provinces of the duchy 
with the connivance of its ruler the Savoyard prince, 
Count Philippe de la Bresse. Realizing the neces- 
sity at once to control this revolt, which favored 
the never slumbering desires of the Count de la 
Bresse to grasp the control of Savoy, the Count de 
la Chambre, accompanied by the Count de Gruy- 
ere and his brother, journeyed to Piemont. The 
Count de la Bresse, on the arrival of these represen- 
tatives of his nephew, caused the Count de la Cham- 
bre to be arrested in his bed and by acts of dangerous 
violence imperiled the lives of the Count of Gruy- 
ere and his brother. The lately renewed alliance 
with the powerful cities of Berne and of Fribourg 
now proved of invaluable assistance to the threat- 
ened duchy of Savoy, for at the appeal of the count 
de la Chambre they exacted an indemnification for 
these injuries, and reduced the Count de la Bresse 
to submission. 

After the death of Duke Philibert, his brother and 
successor Duke Charles III renewed the useful al- 
liance with the confederated cities, and confirmed 
the appointment of Count Louis de Gruyere as 
"conseiller" and "chambellan" of his court with the 
grant of additional pensions. 



The Burgundian Wars 83 

It was not long before Count Louis had a fresh 
opportunity of proving his loyalty to Savoy, an op- 
portunity doubtless welcomed by him to obliterate 
the memory of his former and enforced opposition; 
for when the warlike margrave of Saluzzo revolted 
from his allegiance to Savoy, Count Louis practic- 
ally organized an army of Bernois and Savoyards 
to reduce him to submission, supplying a far greater 
number of Gruyeriens than was required of him, and 
financing the expedition with loans from Fribourg 
for which he was personally liable. Before the 
walls of Saluzzo, it was he who led the assaults, pre- 
served the assailants from destruction when the 
garrison made an unexpected sortie, dispersed a re- 
lieving army, and at last made a triumphant entry 
into the city behind the allied banners of Berne and 
Gruyere. Engaged thus in the mutual support of 
Savoy, Count Louis, always working heart and soul 
for peace if he could, for war if compelled, so mer- 
ited the approbation of the Bernois that their 
captain wrote that "Count Louis de Gruyere and 
his brother had conducted themselves as faithful 
and valorous friends of their allies." Count Louis 
was also enthusiastic over this new alliance of the 
Confederates with his beloved Savoy, and declared 
that "he was resolved to live and die with his allies 
and that with God's help their united strength would 
prevail against all foes.' 1 

Count Louis' new allies warmly appreciated the 



84 The Counts of Gruyere 

chivalry, generosity and independence for which he 
was justly renowned, and in the various differences 
which arose among the restless subjects of Gruyere, 
advised them to trust to the justice of their ruler. 
Preserving to his last day the enthusiasm and the 
frank amenity of a singularly charming and well- 
balanced character, Count Louis was wise in the 
management of his estates, encouraged printing at 
Rougemont, and sharing the love of pomp and 
beauty of the Savoy court, was an amateur in archi- 
tecture and as enthusiastic in his religion as he was 
in all things else. When a tornado followed by a 
disastrous fire destroyed a part of the city and the 
chateau of Gruyere, he planned and partially exe- 
cuted an extensive enlargement of his ancestral 
manor, rebuilding it in the later style of the fifteenth 
century. He also rebuilt the adjoining chapel of 
St. Jean, asking and receiving from the pope a grant 
of indulgence for the faithful who should communi- 
cate therein on the anniversary of its second founda- 
tion and on the fete of its patron saint. The chapel 
richly furnished with sacred books, chalices, lum- 
inaries, and ecclesiastical ornaments still preserves 
with its commemorative inscription the name and 
fame of Count Louis. 



CHAPTER VII 



STRUGGLE FOR SUCCESSION 

N view of the tender age and delicate 
health of his only son, Count Louis, hav- 
long enjoyed a formal alliance with 
Fribourg, thought it wise to make a like 
treaty with Berne; and foreseeing that his son's life 
would probably not be a long one, he drew up a will 
in which he appointed his successors. In this will, he 
decreed that his brother Frangois should be the next 
heir, after him his daughter Helene, and next, in 
default of male heirs of the direct line, the son of his 
brother, Jean de Montsalvens. The signing of the 
treaty with Berne was the last political act of his 
reign of twenty-three years, in which, from begin- 
ning to end, he had well seconded the constructive 
administration of his father. Inheriting Count 
Frangois' brilliant qualities, with less extended pow- 
ers over Savoy, his opportunities for the display of 

85 




86 The Counts of Gruyere 

his soldierly abilities were greater; and although 
wars and disasters had reduced his revenues and less- 
ened the growth of the estates, he was able to pay a 
debt to Fribourg incurred by his father, and besides 
rebuilding the chapel and chateau made various im- 
portant acquisitions of property. Through his wife 
he was connected with one of the oldest and most 
powerful families of Savoy whose representatives 
were distinguished like those of Gruyere for honor- 
able offices at the ducal court, and whose vast posses- 
sions extended over a large part of Savoy, including 
the city of Aix-les-Bains. The Countess Claude, 
left to the charge of a young and delicate son, who 
after a brilliant debut in the tournaments and festivi- 
ties at Chambery died at the early age of seventeen, 
was surrounded by a multitude of annoyances and 
demands from the powerful republic of Berne, 
which she met with more courage than discretion. 
Although during her popular husband's reign, the 
people of Gruyere voluntarily assisted in the as- 
semblage of the materials for the restoration of the 
chateau, they revolted when the countess imposed 
taxes upon them for the continuation of the work, 
and a most unusual bitterness of feeling arose, which 
was only pacified by the arbitration of the Council 
of Fribourg. Little understanding her people — 
who, as always, could be ruled by love and not by 
force — she was not only compelled to yield in this 
matter, but conceded to the Bernois the fortress of 



Struggle for Succession 87 

Mannenburg, to keep the peace with her formidable 
neighbor. The countess, grief-stricken at the death 
of her only son, was for a brief period relieved from 
her onerous responsibilities by her brother-in-law, 
Francois III, who, according to Count Louis' will, 
followed his nephew in the rule of Gruyere. Al- 
though succeeding at an advanced age to the throne 
of his ancestors and occupying it for less than a year, 
Count Francois III had shared the offices of "con- 
seiller" and "chambellan" at the court of Savoy with 
his brother Louis, and was held in equal honor by 
the cities of Fribourg and Berne. Like Louis, he 
was admitted to the diplomatic councils of the Euro- 
pean powers, and allying himself with the prince 
of Orange, who, with the Orleans league, disputed 
the control of France with Louis XII, prevented 
the threatened intervention of the Swiss Confeder- 
ates. Astonishing as was the influence of so small 
a principality as that of Gruyere, containing at no 
time more than twenty thousand inhabitants, it was 
due not only to its intermediate situation between 
the republics of Berne and Fribourg and the pos- 
sessions of Savoy but to the great personal import- 
ance of its rulers — particularly of Count Francois 
and his two sons Louis and Francois, who were not 
only supreme in their control of the duchy of Savoy, 
but were unquestionably the greatest nobles in 
Romand Switzerland. Holding its sovereignty di- 
rectly from the emperor, Gruyere had long been an 



88 



The Counts of Gruyere 



independant state, and by the grant of Wenceslas its 
rulers were not only empowered to issue money but 
had always possessed unqualified rights of justice 
and administration over their subjects. An inter- 
regnum of discord was unfortunately destined to 
lessen the power and diminish the prosperity of 
Gruyere, for Count Frangois III, who had accom- 
panied the prince of Orange in his unfortunate 
invasion of Italy, succumbed to the fatigue of the 
campaign, leaving the countess and her daughter 
to a long and bitter struggle for the latter's rights 
to the succession. 

Although by the old Burgundian law, the right 
of female succession was not without precedent, the 
general inclination of popular sentiment was defi- 
nitely against it; and while Helene by her father's 
will was authorized during her life to claim the rule 
of Gruyere, that will directed that his nephew Jean 
of the cadet branch of the family should succeed 
her. But the wills of Count Antoine as well as of 
his son Francois provided for the immediate and 
direct succession of the next in line of that cadet 
branch, Jean de Montsalvens, the brother of Count 
Louis, and not the young son designated by the lat- 
ter. Fully foreseeing the impending difficulties 
which would beset his wife and daughter when they 
should attempt to carry out his designs, Count Louis 
could never have imagined that the Countess Claude 
would assist the family which had already disputed 



Struggle for Succession 89 

the right of his own line to the throne by consenting 
to a marriage of her daughter with Claude de 
Vergy. Legitimized by the pope, sustained by 
Savoy, Count Frangois had by his incomparable 
ability brought Gruyere to such a height of power 
and prosperity that, after the first attempt to dis- 
possess him, he had been left undisturbed. Count 
Louis, however, had been violently attacked by 
Count Guillaume de Vergy, who had instigated dur- 
ing the Burgundian wars, the seizure of Aubonne 
and the invasion of Gruyere, while during the short 
reign of his son Frangois raids of undisciplined 
marauders sent out by the same family only too 
plainly announced their hostile intentions. With the 
rapidly succeeding deaths of the young Frangois II 
and his uncle Frangois III, the astute Guillaume de 
Vergy — a very great noble, head of his family and 
marechal of Burgundy — saw an opportunity of 
grasping the long coveted succession for his son 
Claude by means of a marriage with Helene of 
Gruyere. But he reckoned without the well 
founded claims and stout opposition of Jean de 
Montsalvens, between whom and his son on one side 
and Helene and her mother on the other side such a 
contest arose as nearly plunged Switzerland into 
civil war. While Berne was on Helene's side, Fri- 
bourg supported Jean de Montsalvens. The duke 
of Savoy supported the two ladies, but could find no 
better solution of their difficulties than to ask them 



90 The Counts of Gruyere 

to receive the rival pretendant as a guest in the 
chateau. When finally their friends the Bernois 
and their enemies of Fribourg proposed to install 
Jean provisionally at Gruyere under the protection 
of an armed force, the countess thought prudent to 
retire, leaving the chateau to the management of 
her chatelain. But while the duke of Savoy and the 
two cities were temporizing and hesitating between 
the rival claimants, the mountaineers of Gessenay, 
leaders of the German-Swiss people of Gruyere, 
and who were violently opposed to the marriage of 
Mdlle. de Gruyere with the detested family of de 
Vergy, formally acknowledged Jean de Montsal- 
vens as their ruler. In spite of the popular oppo- 
sition, Helene's marriage was duly celebrated and 
her rival soon after installed himself at the chateau. 
Whereupon, the duke of Savoy indignant at the dis- 
regard of his futile propositions, sent a messenger to 
Berne commanding their intervention in favor of 
Helene, and another to Jean himself with a mandate 
immediately to evacuate the chateau. Berne in- 
formed the men of Gessenay of its intention to sup- 
port Helene, and commanded them to keep the 
peace. The prospect of a general war seemed so im- 
minent that the king of France sent his ambassador, 
the Cardinal d'Amboise, to investigate the matter, 
and the marechal of Burgundy so influenced the em- 
peror that he issued an imperial mandate recogniz- 
ing Claude de Vergy as ruler of the disputed prov- 




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Struggle for Succession 91 

ince. But Jean de Montsalvens, supported by his 
mountaineers, with an enrolled force of four thous- 
and men, dismissed with calm politeness the mes- 
senger of Savoy, ignored the threats of the two cities 
as well as the mandate of the emperor, and pre- 
served so bold a front against all his foes that he 
gained the assistance of Berne and the unanimous 
support of all his people, and was formally recog- 
nized as count of Gruyere. The duke of Savoy and 
the two cities now proposed a council of all the par- 
ties concerned by which the rival claims should be 
decided, but refusing at first to submit his rights 
to arbitration, Count Jean delayed until he was as- 
sured by popular consent of the success of his cause, 
and then appearing before the council at Geneva, 
was formally confirmed in his already established 
succession. 

The Countess Claude, although supported by 
such friends as the marechal of Burgundy, the duke 
of Savoy, the king of France, and the emperor of 
Germany, had been reduced to sad straits. From 
her retreat at the chateau of Aubonne, without heat, 
without food, she had appealed to the guard which 
Berne and Fribourg had established at Gruyere 
for a little of her home butter and cheese to keep her 
from actual starvation. The council at Geneva pro- 
vided for her necessities by requiring the restoration 
of the amount of her dot, and to her and her daugh- 
ter possession of the chateaux of Aubonne and 



92 The Counts of Gruyere 

Moliere for their lives, with a purchasable rever- 
sion in favor of Count Jean. But when, dying early, 
Helene, in defiance of this provision, left these prop- 
erties to her husband and his family, there were 
more quarrels about their possession, and again the 
European powers were invoked by Guillaume de 
Vergy, who procured from Louis XII of France a 
protest as unheeded as the mandate of the emperor, 
against their diversion to Count Jean. But the mare- 
chal at last succeeded in his long considered plan of 
amicably uniting the rival claims, for in a family 
council it was finally agreed that his daughter Mar- 
guerite should marry Count Jean's son and succes- 
sor, and that the purchase money of the two cha- 
teaux, supplied by Count Jean, should constitute her 
dowry. So was concluded a quarrel of more than 
sixty years, begun and ended by a marriage. 

The estates so manfully won by Count Jean were 
not destined to bring him unmixed satisfaction. The 
men of Gessenay demanded pay for their support 
in the form of costly enfranchisements from con- 
tributions or taxes; the revenues of Gruyere had 
already been decreased by the long legal processes 
of the succession, the maintenance of the army of 
defence, and the payment of Countess Claude's 
dot and her daughter's pension, as well as by 
the heavy purchase money of the chateaux of Au- 
bonne and Moliere. While still preserving its ap- 
pearance of luxury the court of Gruyere was now 



Struggle for Succession 93 

supplied and maintained by loans from Berne and 
Fribourg, while Count Jean, who had prevailed 
against so powerful an array of foes, was like his 
predecessors, despoiled by the bishop of Lausanne, 
who demanded the cession of his rights over a rich 
part of his possessions. Thus the reign which had 
begun by an astonishing display of courage and firm- 
ness was so embarrassed by the expenditure incident 
to its establishment, that it ran thereafter a very in- 
glorious course unmarked by the happy prosperity 
of former years. When Maximilian I prepared to 
proceed to Italy to be crowned emperor of the 
Romans, the Bernois consented to enroll Count 
Jean's son, his son-in-law, the seigneur of Chate- 
lard, and Claude de Vergy, under the Gruyere 
banner in the army of confederates which was to 
swell the imperial forces. But with the refusal of 
Venice to permit the passage of Maximilian this 
dream of worldly experience and adventure was 
necessarily abandoned. Except for the service of 
the Count's illegitimate son Jean, who fought with a 
force of Gruyeriens in the battle of Novara, when 
the Swiss preserved Milan to its dukes against the 
invading army of Louis XII, no military honor ac- 
crued to Gruyere during his reign. 



CHAPTER VIII 



RELIGIOUS REFORM 




HE death of Count Jean in the beginning 
of the 1 6th century left to his son Jean II 
the task of upholding the old ideals of 
the Gruyere house against the continu- 
ally growing democracy in Switzerland, as well as 
against the advance of religious reform. Endowed 
with all his father's firmness, he possessed the chiv- 
alric ardor of his predecessors and a full share of 
their personal charm. The long and intimate rela- 
tion of Gruyere and Savoy which had been inter- 
rupted by his father's maintenance of his rights of 
succession against the will of Duke Philibert II, 
were renewed by Count Jean II, who soon merited 
the title so worthily won by his predecessors of the 
"greatest noble in Romand Switzerland." 

When Count Philippe de Bresse, after a lifetime 
spent in envious agitations against the ruling dukes 



94 



Religious Reform 95 

at last succeeded to the throne of Savoy, he splen- 
didly atoned for his ill-treatment of Count Louis 
de Gruyere and his brother by immediately invest- 
nig Count Jean II with the offices held by his pre- 
decessors; and when he magnificently celebrated his 
reconstitution of the Order of the Annonciata in the 
chapel of Chambery, he invested Count Jean with 
the order, and at the ensuing fetes gave him a seat at 
his side. The gift of this order, bestowing upon its 
possessor the privilege of diplomatic negotiations 
with the thrones of Europe, brilliantly recognized 
the position already held by the counts of Gruyere 
of arbitrators for Savoy and Romand Switzerland 
in the continual differences which arose between 
them and the monarchs of France and Austria. Al- 
though still only a duchy, Savoy had long been 
related by marriage with all the kingdoms of Eur- 
ope. It was triply related to France through the 
wife and the sister of Louis XI and through Louise 
de Savoie, mother of Frangois I; it was doubly re- 
lated to the latter's great rival, the emperor Charles 
V, through Philibert's wife, the able Marguerite 
d'Autriche, and again through the emperor's sister- 
in-law, the Duchess Beatrix of Portugal, wife of 
Philibert's successor, Charles III. Fortified and 
elated by this imperial alliance, Duke Charles III 
began his unfortunate reign with a magnificent 
progress through Piemont and Savoy, where, par- 
ticularly in the Pays de Vaud, he was cordially 



96 The Counts of Gruyere 

welcomed. At Geneva "the youth of the city were 
gayly decked out in damask, velvet and cloth of gold, 
while a corps of the most beautiful women, superbly 
dressed as amazons carrying lances and shields, 
were led by a fair Spaniard in honor of the 
Duchesse." At Vevey, bells rang, and a great proces- 
sion of soldiers in particolor followed by others in 
pure white, with a hundred pages also in white, car- 
rying the white cross of Savoy, came out from the 
gates to meet him. 

Presenting his suzerain with the donations of the 
Pays de Vaud at Lausanne, Count Jean was also 
present with the bishops of Tarentaise, Lausanne 
and de Bellay at the general assembly of the Savoy 
estates at Morges, and at the chateau of Oron re- 
ceived the duke and his suite at a splendid banquet. 

The Swiss, divided by religious wars, and since 
the battles of Grandson, Morat and Nancy the ac- 
tual arbiters of Europe, were constantly solicited 
for their alliance, and yielding to their cupidity and 
a widespread spirit of adventure, continually di- 
vided their forces into mercenary bands, fighting for 
Italy and then France in the long series of disastrous 
Italian campaigns undertaken by Charles VIII and 
his successors, Louis XII and Frangois I. "Point 
d'argent, point de Suisse" a saying only too well 
merited by the conduct of these mercenary armies, 
originated from these French-Italian campaigns. 
In 1499 the Swiss, fighting with France, betrayed 



Religious PvEFORM 97 

the duke of Milan to Louis XII. At Novara, fifteen 
years later, they fought for the duke, and took for 
themselves a large part of Piemont. At Marignan, 
the young Francois I at the head of a brilliant army 
of the French noblesse, furnished with all the ac- 
coutrements and artillery of modern warfare, re- 
ceived his baptism of fire, and Bayard won his 
shining immortality. There also the Swiss in a 
second battle of giants, although defeated, won as 
they had at St. Jacques the admiration of their con- 
queror; and just as Louis XI had tempted them by 
unlimited pay to join his cause, again Francois I 
induced them by promises of permanent pensions to 
a perpetual alliance, and to the peace called "per- 
petual" which afterward was maintained between 
Switzerland and France. 

With the strictest historical justice this alliance, 
based on cupidity, was by the same ignoble motive 
made void of result. When the great Emperor 
Charles V, allied with the pope and England, 
threatened the French possessions in Italy, the Swiss 
soldiers compelled the French general to engage the 
imperial forces under the most unfavorable condi- 
tions, and in the disastrous battle of the Bicoque 
brought about the defeat of their allies, the loss of 
Milan and the evacuation of Italy. Among the 
16,000 Swiss who here demonstrated the worst of 
their national qualities, was a force of 400 men 
from Gruyere under the command of Count Jean, 



98 The Counts of Gruyere 

who fought with his natural son Jean, his brother 
Jacques and his cousin of Blonay in the thick of 
the battle. The French were hopelessly outnum- 
bered by the combined imperial and Italian armies 
and suffered a crushing defeat, and the Swiss sol- 
diers whose pay had been stolen by the mother of 
Francois I returned to their own country after the 
battle. Confessing in truth that they were "mal 
payes, mal dotes," Count Jean also declared that the 
Milanese duchy would never be recovered by the 
French king unless he came himself to Italy to 
conduct the campaign. He, therefore, returned to 
his estates after this disheartening experience where 
he found the long smouldering resentment against 
the predatory bishop of Lausanne at the point of 
explosion. By threat of arms, he exacted payment 
for his despoiled rights from the bishop, and before 
a great assemblage of his nobles, communes and peo- 
ple solemnly enacted the cessation of all trade with 
the bishop's market at Bulle in favor of Fribourg, 
with whose authorities he also established new com- 
mercial relations. But Count Jean, who had great 
reason to pursue these wise measures for the re- 
habilitation of his already impoverished and mort- 
gaged estates, was soon drawn into the contest which 
arose between the democratic and Savoyard parties 
of Geneva, when the former, making an alliance 
with the republics of Berne and Fribourg, essayed 
to shake off the control of Savoy. The severance 



Religious Reform 99 

of the alliance of those cities with Savoy, announced 
a formidable alignment of the adherents of liberty 
in Romand Switzerland against the ruling duchy. 
But before this new combination had become suf- 
ficiently consolidated to accomplish its end, there 
were many efforts at pacification and compromise, 
and the count of Gruyere most reluctantly was 
forced to accept the office of arbiter between Savoy 
and the free cities. 

Again as so often had happened before, the ruler 
of Gruyere was faced with a choice between his 
suzerain and the republics of Switzerland. Count 
Jean unhesitatingly chose the former, and an- 
nounced in his capacity of arbitrator the dissolution 
of the alliance of the free cities with Geneva. The 
result of this exceedingly courageous action was his 
own arraignment by Fribourg for conduct which 
they announced as unjustifiable and actionable. But 
the duke of Savoy was determined to reward Count 
Jean for his fidelity, and prevailed upon Berne and 
Soleure to renew their alliances but released Fri- 
bourg from all relations with his house, thus de- 
livering Count Jean from its threatened revenge. 
This treaty, regulating the relations of Savoy with 
the cities of Berne and Soleure, did not, however, 
finish the contest between the Genevan demo- 
crats and the duke of Savoy, for the duke within a 
month sent an army within sight of the city to reduce 
it to submission. The feudal powers in Switzerland 



ioo The Counts of Gruyere 

were now arrayed with Savoy against the rebels of 
Geneva in a league of young nobles, who assembled 
in force at Coppet to attack the city of Geneva. But 
now, although the heir of Gruyere was among the 
nobles, the people joined the army of Berne and 
Fribourg which marched to the aid of the rebellious 
city. Resorting to their old pastime of devastation, 
the army of liberty burned chateau after chateau 
in their march to Geneva, and uniting their forces 
with the rebels they summoned the duke of Savoy 
to account for his responsibility in the threatened 
attack. In an assemblage of the ambassadors of the 
ten confederated cantons, the duke of Savoy secured 
his continued control of Geneva, but paid dearly for 
it in the hypothecation to the greedy cities of Berne 
and Fribourg of the whole of the Pays de Vaud. 
Following this important concession, the victorious 
cities solemnly ratified their treaties with Geneva, 
and with the establishment of religious reform, 
which had developed simultaneously with the strug- 
gle for political independence, Geneva finally suc- 
ceeded in freeing itself from the rule of Savoy. 
Catholic among the Catholics, Count Jean vigor- 
ously supported the duke in the defence of their re- 
ligion, and converted his chateau of Oron into a 
refuge for the fugitives from the Lutheran persecu- 
tion. While the Bernois were breaking the sacred 
images and wrecking the churches and chapels, 
Count Jean regularly maintained the celebration 



Religious Reform 



ioi 



of mass at Oron, and threatened to wreak vengeance 
upon the Lutheran heretics who fell into his hands. 
Therefore, the Bernois, with evangelical pronuncia- 
mentos, commanded him to desist, and under threat 
of depriving him of the chateau and seigneurie of 
Oron, forced the adoption in this Catholic strong- 
hold of the Lutheran faith. At Gruyere all the 
people were faithful, and in large numbers jour- 
neyed to Fribourg, declaring they would die rather 
than abandon their religion. At the warning that 
a band of Bernese Lutherans was preparing to in- 
vade Gruyere, the Fribourgeois summoned the peo- 
ple to be ready at the sound of the tocsin to take 
arms to repel them. Epidemics succeeded to these 
alarms, the restless people continually demanded 
new concessions, and finally the Bernois, openly 
declaring war upon Savoy, rapidly conquered the 
long coveted Pays de Vaud and summoned the count 
of Gruyere to acknowledge their sovereignty. When 
Count Jean stoutly rejected the demands of the 
Bernois, they immediately threatened the invasion 
of his estates; but their watchful rivals of Fribourg 
energetically protested, and when an ambassador of 
Charles V arrived on the scene to lend the Imperial 
support to the threatened principality, the Bernois 
consented to recognize the independence of Gruy- 
ere but exacted and at last obtained Count Jean's 
acceptance of their sovereignty over his possessions 
in the Pays de Vaud. Berne's demands were no 



io2 The Counts of Gruyere 

sooner satisfied than Fribourg with an army pre- 
pared to take Corbieres, but at this Count Jean's 
loyal subjects rose in a body, and the Fribourgeois, 
threatened by the people of Berne, consented to 
arbitrate their claims at the very moment when the 
valiant Count Jean was seized with sudden illness 
and ended his greatly tormented existence. 

"Towards the end of the month of November," 
a contemporary chronicler relates, "died at Gruyere, 
the noble and powerful lord Jean, Count of the said 
Gruyere, who before his death had suffered great 
troubles and pains, as much from the change in the 
overlordship and government of his country as from 
that of religion." 

The change of overlordship had been a desolating 
disaster to the loyal vassal of the good Duke Charles 
of Savoy, who, when Frangois I despoiled him of 
all but a remnant of his duchy, was sent into a pov- 
erty-stricken exile. A less firm resistance on the 
part of Count Jean against the encroaching powers 
of the confederated cities would have brought a 
like fate on Gruyere. In an epoch of transition, 
when the old feudal order was giving place to the 
increasingly triumphant democracy in Switzerland, 
in a period embittered by cruel religious persecu- 
tions, involved in the wars and events which altered 
the political and moral aspect of Europe, he pre- 
served to the last the integrity of his domain and its 
fidelity to its ancient faith. Personifying all the 



Religious Reform 103 

virtues of the old order of chivalry, greatly honored 
by his suzerain, loved and respected at home, it 
cannot be denied that he was at the same time the 
exemplar of its faults, and of these a great and 
practically licensed immorality was the chief. From 
the earliest period in the history of Gruyere, many 
of the illegitimate sons of its rulers were dedicated 
to the church, and often rising to high places among 
its prelates shared in the prevailing laxity and were 
naturally forced to condone and finally to recognize 
the continuance of this state of affairs. With even 
less attempt at concealment than had been observed 
by his ancestors in the pursuance of these irregular 
relations Count Jean openly installed his mistress 
the famous Luce d'Alberguex, at the chateau. An 
ideal Gruyere beauty was la Belle Luce, with the 
vigorous perfection of her race and a smile of such 
naive sweetness and charm as still lingers in the 
popular tradition. Count Jean gave her his fairest 
mountain as a gage of his affection and villages and 
rich pasture lands to her brave son, his namesake, 
who had fought by his side at the Bicoque. The 
gallant count was, according to tradition, very prodi- 
gal in his favors, and a certain road, leading to the 
neighboring village of Charmey where the unhappy 
Countess Marguerite could watch her faithless lord 
as he rode away on his various adventures, is still 
known as the " Gharriere de Greve-Gceur." 

Married for reasons of family policy to the 



104 The Counts of Gruyere 

daughter of the de Vergys, who resided for the most 
part in the chateau of Oron, Count Jean passed his 
happiest days with la Belle Luce at Gruyere. After 
the death of his countess, and the passing of his 
youthful loves, he married Catherine de Montey- 
nard, with whom he honorably passed the last dec- 
ade of his life. 



CHAPTER IX 



THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF GRUYERE 




HE three sons of Count Jean II not 
strangely reflected the conditions of their 
birth and the widely differing characters 
of their mothers. Frangois, only son of 
his second marriage, which was founded on a reaL 
preference and esteem, possessed the kindly and 
charitable nature of his mother and the firm charac- 
ter of his distinguished Gruyere ancestors. Jean, the 
illegitimate son of Luce d'Alberguex, was lovable 
and valorous, but lacking in firmness or dignity of 
character. Michel, the heir of Gruyere, and the 
child of Count Jean's loveless marriage with Mar- 
guerite de Vergy, while personifying in their per- 
fection the physical beauty and charm of his line, 
was like the fair fruit of a decaying tree hollow at 
heart, and was only too well fitted by his fantastic 
pretensions and his frivolous weakness of character 

105 



106 The Counts of Gruyere 

for the tragic role which was assigned to him in the 
fall of his house. 

"Vela, Michel li preux It beaux 
Fleur de tous autres damoiseaux." 

2l couplet describing the romantic figure of the last 
count of Gruyere, is still rhymed by the people and 
still finds its place among their records. Imposing 
in height as his great forerunner Frangois de Gruy- 
ere, his features were of a beautiful regularity and 
nobility, his manner had that princely pride and 
simplicity which was the greatest charm of Fran- 
cois I of France. At the French court, as in all 
Switzerland, he was renowned as "the handsomest 
knight of his day." With the extinction of the court 
at Chambery, where his predecessors had received 
their education in chivalry and where they had so 
faithfully and honorably served the dukes of Savoy, 
the young Michel was sent to the still more brilliant 
court of France. Blazing with the beauty of the 
great ladies who ruled the adored and adorable 
young king, the resort of painters and poets, the ren- 
dezvous of all the noblesse of France, this court at 
its highest pitch of pageantry and pride was a daz- 
zling school for the young damosel of Gruyere. 
Here in the white and gold dress of the "Enfants du 
Roi" and next as king's Pannetier, he passed eight 
years of his youth, patterning his ideals only too 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 107 

faithfully upon the young sovereign he served. On 
his return to Switzerland fresh from this experience 
in France, he joined the league of young nobles 
called "de la cuiller" from their vow to make a 
sweet morsel of the rebel republicans of Geneva. 
In highwaymen raids in company with his mad 
cousin de Beaufort of Coppet and Rolle, he defied 
the formidable seigneurs of Berne, and was only 
saved from their chastisement by their regard for 
his father. After these escapades, he departed for 
Italy to the court of the emperor Charles the Fifth, 
who at first treated him with extraordinary confi- 
dence, but when he demanded to be appointed 
prince of the empire and gentleman of the bed- 
chamber, the emperor refused. Passing only enough 
time at Gruyere to receive the vows of fidelity from 
his subjects and to make a tour of his estates, he 
proceeded by way of France to carry out a mission 
of the emperor in Flanders. At Paris where the em- 
peror halted on his way to deal with his rebellious 
Flemish subjects, Count Michel was so pleasantly 
entertained in the round of fetes and divertissements 
which celebrated the imperial visit, that he post- 
poned again and again the adjustment of the im- 
portant differences with Fribourg which had been 
left in abeyance at the death of his father. His 
mission to Flanders was so carelessly executed that 
he soon lost the confidence of the emperor who, 
openly declaring that "he thought little of him," 



108 The Counts of Gruyere 

sent him away from Turin. On his return to Paris 
after another brief visit to his country Count Michel 
received a better welcome from Frangois I, who 
invested him with the Order of the King and with 
the Collar of St. Michael. No better example of the 
personal charm of Frangois I is to be found in his- 
tory than his influence over his Swiss allies. As- 
suring the ambassadors of Berne, when they 
visited Paris with the hope of being released from 
their military service, that the disastrous results of 
his Italian campaigns were due only to the derange- 
ment of his finances, he promised personally to lead 
them in his approaching invasion, beguiled them 
with fair words and promises, even engaging to 
place the crown diamonds in their custody as gage 
of their pay, and professing that he was "Vami de 
cceur" of the Confederates bound them for weal or 
woe to his cause. At the battle of Sesia when Bay- 
ard fell before the armies of the emperor and the 
traitorous Constable of France, it was the Swiss 
who saved the existence of the French forces. At 
the disastrous defeat of Pavia, losing half of their 
soldiers, they fought with a desperate courage for 
the lost cause of the still beloved king, who at the 
moment of surrender could salute the Swiss guard 
and say to his captor: "If all my soldiers had fought 
like these, I would not be your prisoner but you 
would be mine." 

In the complications which arose from Berne's 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 109 

renewed demands for the recognition of their au- 
thority over Gruyere, Count Michel became a figure 
of international importance. When his domain was 
threatened with invasion, he declared that he had 
received it from God and his fathers, and would 
not submit. The Fribourgeois, in the interests of 
the Catholic party, were against Berne, and declared 
they would support him to the full extent of their 
power. Six other Catholic cities also ranged them- 
selves with Fribourg, and war seemed so imminent 
that the matter was taken before the Diet, when, 
with the aid of the French ambassadors and a sum- 
mons from the emperor Charles V to respect the 
independence of his imperial fief, Count Michel 
was able to retain the freedom of Gruyere, but 
compelled like his father to admit Berne's authority 
over his possessions in the Pays de Vaud. In the 
support which Frangois I gave to Count Michel, he 
followed not so much his predilection for a courtier 
whom he had invested with the Order of St. Michel 
as his habitual policy of conciliating the Swiss, 
whose support was indispensable to him in the war 
he had again declared against the emperor. In 
December of the year 1543, Count Michel at the in- 
vitation of the king joined the French army before 
Landrecies, where with a small force of cavalry 
armed and equipped at his own expense he was for- 
tunate enough to assist his old master in relieving the 
siege of the city. 



I IO 



The Counts of Gruyere 



But this was the only fortune which fell to the 
Gruyere banner during the various campaigns in 
which he was engaged. "Fanfarront" and proud, 
the new and richly embroidered flag he commanded 
represented the symbolic and hitherto honorable 
"Grue," in a guise as "fanfarront" as Count Michel 
himself. Assuming the title of prince, and for his 
poverty-stricken little domain the powers and in- 
dependence of a royal principality, he was not con- 
tent to furnish the two thousand men required by 
the king, but rashly undertook to double the number. 
Still more rashly he left the levee of these troops to 
a delegate, who hastily assembled a motley and dis- 
reputable collection of untrained men from all parts 
of the country, with a few ignorant peasants from 
Gruyere itself who were in no way fitted to sustain 
the valorous reputation of their country. Detained 
by the quarrels which against all advice he contin- 
ually pursued with Geneva and Berne, he delegated 
his command of these troops to the same untrust- 
worthy agent who had collected them, a certain Sire 
de Cugy of Vaud. At a critical moment in the bat- 
tle of Cerisolles this helpless band of peasants not 
surprisingly took to their heels and seriously endan- 
gered the victory of the French. The other Swiss 
soldiers sustained their old reputation with prodi- 
gies of valor, but upon the Gruyeriens were lavished 
every epithet of contempt. The pitiful episode was 
the object of many royal witticisms. To the king 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere i i r 

who "supposed that they were of the same stuff as 
the Confederates," his chronicler du Bellay replied 

that "it was folly to disguise an ass as a charger" 

"Why pay these cowards," asked the king in return, 
"who fled like Grues hier?" 

How important the little Swiss province was con- 
sidered among the great kingdoms of Europe, was 
again shown in the multitude and variety of obser- 
vations in the contemporary memoirs upon the 
conduct of the men who untruthfully called them- 
selves Gruyeriens. A comment of Rabelais in his 
Pantagruel, adds to the general reproach. "It has 
always been the custom in war, to double pay for the 
day when the battle is won. With victory there is 
profit and somewhat for payment; with defeat, it is 
shame to demand reward, as did the runaways of 
Gruyere after the battle of Serizolles." Thus Rabe- 
lais mocked the last Gruyere soldiers as Tasso 
praised the first, and an undeserved stigma was set 
on the banner which had been carried unstained 
through six centuries of warfare at home and 
abroad. 

With a persistency which deserved a better re- 
ward, Count Michel now determined to redeem his 
disgrace, and joined the French armies in the pro- 
longed attempt to relieve the city of St. Dizier, 
besieged by the imperial forces. But fortune on 
this occasion was unfavorable to the French and no 
glory was gained and no rehabilitation of the unfor- 



ii2 The Counts of Gruyere 

tunate Gruyeriens. In a third campaign under the 
command of the Due de Guise, Count Michel was 
again with the French before Boulogne, and a wit- 
ness of the peace of Crepy which was signed at the 
moment when that city fell into the hands of the 
English. Thus although putting forth every effort 
to restore the ancient reputation of his house, the 
unlucky Count Michel was forced to return with- 
out laurels to Gruyere where, during the last peace- 
ful years of the reign of Francois I, no further 
military service was required of him. But the Ber- 
nois still tormented him for recognition of their 
sovereignty over the disputed seigneuries of 
Palezieux, and continued to lend him money, thus 
gradually and surely laying their hands on his long 
coveted possessions. With a like calculating gener- 
osity, Fribourg accepted mortgages on such portions 
of his property as were not already mortgaged to 
Berne, while Count Michel, like a butterfly caught 
in the closing net of its captors, lived gayly in the 
lingering sunshine of this false prosperity. A ro- 
mantic imbroglio in which his cousin de Beaufort 
was involved afforded him congenial distraction, 
and again served to attract the attention of the king 
of France and the emperor to the affairs of Gruy- 
ere. Passing their brilliant youth together at the 
court of Frangois I, where the young sire de Beau- 
fort was also "Enfant du Roi," the comrades were 
also associated in the mad escapades of the "Lique 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 113 

de la Cuiller/' against the Geneva republicans, and 
when de Beaufort carried off the beautiful Marie de 
la Palud, it was to Gruyere that he fled, riding 
madly across country to ask Count Michel's protec- 
tion. The mother of the run-away beauty — a cer- 
tain Countess de la Varax, was determined to 
recover her daughter and as a bourgeoise of Berne, 
denounced the ravisher to the city authorities, but 
when informed by the countess of Beaufort that she 
had been married by bell and by book, and had 
Count Michel's promise to intercede in her favor, 
they declined to prosecute her or her husband. Fri- 
bourg also took the side of the lovers, and sent a let- 
ter in their behalf to the king of France. But the 
Countess de la Varax had already secured the sup- 
port of both emperor and king, who, thinking the 
matter of high political importance, sent pressing 
letters by their ambassadors to Berne and Fribourg 
and, later, to the Diet of the Confederation, com- 
manding that de Beaufort should give up his bride. 
Informed of these royal and imperial commands, 
the Sire de Beaufort declared he would die rather 
than give up his wife or emerge from his Gruyere 
asylum, and prayed the seigneurs of Berne to write 
to the king in his favor. Before the grave as- 
semblage of the Confederation of the Diet at Baden, 
Count Michel magnificently declared that as for 
him he would protect the refugees at all costs, and 
left the matter to the justice of the delegates. The 



ii4 The Counts of Gruyere 

Diet as stoutly declining to dissolve a legalized mar- 
riage, defied the summons of the king and the 
emperor and ordered the pursuit of the lovers to 
cease. The two counts of Gruyere and of Beaufort 
were so gratified by this support that when the em- 
peror prepared to invade Switzerland they offered 
to join the Confederate army in the defence of their 
country. With the passing of this threat of invasion 
Count Michel lost his last opportunity of military 
distinction. The remainder of his reign was one 
long struggle with the net of financial embarrass- 
ment which now encompassed him. The youthful 
impression of magnificence gained at the French 
court, the vanity of his extraordinary beauty, the 
favor of the dazzling Francois I, the actual inde- 
pendence of his imperial principality exalted his 
imagination to a pitch of pretension utterly beyond 
his capacity of either leadership or organization. 
He was fertile in imagination, persistent and inde- 
fatigable, but he had unfortunately inherited no 
trace of the firmness or judgment displayed by the 
long line of his ancestors, while from the intriguing 
de Vergy strain, he derived a treacherous and feeble 
duplicity, which lost him the confidence of the 
sovereigns he served and the cities with which he 
was allied. Although maintaining an apparent 
friendship with Berne and Fribourg, whose mone- 
tary assistance he constantly demanded, he suc- 
ceeded by a complicated system of loans and partial 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere i i s 

payments of interest in possessing himself of a long 
line of chateaux-forts extending from Gruyere to 
the Pays de Gex. As he was the acknowledged head 
of the still existing league "de la Cuiller," his ac- 
quisition of this formidable line of fortresses only 
too clearly indicated his design of restoring the 
supremacy of the nobles in Switzerland, and by a 
brilliant dash for liberty at once to obliterate the 
power and the embarrassing financial claims of 
Berne and Fribourg. His friends had already 
begun to collect ammunition, and apparitions of 
armed bands were reported to Berne, when a warn- 
ing from the French ambassador that a project was 
on foot to threaten their liberties and to reestablish 
the exiled duke of Savoy, caused the authorities to 
send word to the baillis in the several departments 
to watch Count Michel and find out the secret of 
his intentions. When he was summoned to appear 
at Berne to account for these suspicious occurrences, 
Count Michel forthwith abandoned his far-reach- 
ing and unpracticable scheme, and sent a request to 
the council asking for time to prepare the documents 
to establish his innocence. Vanished now were his 
splendid hopes of reestablishing the noblesse under 
his leadership, and crushed under the enormous 
debts which he had incurred in the acquisition of 
the now useless fortresses, he was forced to make a 
supreme effort to preserve himself and his domain 
from utter and imminent ruin. His long attachment 



u6 The Counts of Gruyere 

to Frangois I, although rewarded by the very con- 
siderable dignity of the royal Order of St. Michael, 
had been far less profitable in substantial results, for 
his old master, according to his custom, had failed 
to pay either the salaries of his positions at court 
or the pensions alloted to Gruyere according to the 
terms of the Perpetual Peace. To the arrears of 
these pensions and salaries, Count Michel added 
the expenses of his various expeditions with the 
French armies and the pay of the soldiers who had 
so disgraced him at Cerisolles. The sum of these 
claims, drawn up in an interminable document and 
presented to Frangois Vs son and successor Henri 
II, amounted to no less than 1,700,000 francs. King 
Henri, who had by no means forgotten the sort of 
service rendered by these soldiers, was irritated at 
the fantastic sum of Count Michel's claims, and 
after a long delay offered half of the arrears of the 
pay of his soldiers but rejected the other demands, 
declaring that as a knight of the Order of St. Michael 
the count was a French subject and had no right as 
a Confederate to the pensions granted by the terms 
of the Perpetual Peace. This offer Count Michel 
indignantly refused, threatening to send back the 
Order of St. Michael, and appealing to the Diet to 
confirm his undoubted status as a Confederate. 
Berne and Fribourg and at length the Diet ratified 
this claim and sent messengers to the king recom- 
mending its recognition, but assigned the greatly 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 117 

reduced sum of 60,000 francs as the amount of the 
pensions due. The king replying that he would in no 
case alter his decision, the Berne authorities, with a 
singular consideration for their unfortunate debtor 
procured the additional recommendations of all the 
cantons; but the king still insisted that as Chevalier 
of St. Michael, the count was bound to come to Paris 
to present his claims before the tribunal of the order. 
The count, however, as persistently refused to go to 
Paris "to be mocked by the King," and defiantly pro- 
posed that the latter should be summoned to person- 
ally appear before the Diet. A less extravagant 
demand, a less obstinate refusal, would have surely 
obtained a better recognition from the monarch who 
"never broke his word," but failing to persuade 
either the king or his claimant, the Confederates 
were forced to abandon their intervention and Count 
Michael got nothing at all. Ill and despairing, he 
now abandoned the administration of his hopelessly 
involved estates to his brother Francois, who with 
the aid of an appointed council vainly essayed to 
bring order out of confusion. In an open assembly 
the people were asked to guarantee a new loan on the 
promise of the cession of all the Gruyere revenues 
at a fixed date. Irritated but still faithful to their 
ruler they consented, but the delay thus obtained 
only postponed the inevitable disaster. Berne and 
Fribourg now announced their intention of assum- 
ing the debts of the entirely mortgaged domain and 



n8 The Counts of Gruyere 

dividing it between them. The unhappy people of 
Gruyere prepared to witness the dispossession of 
their ruler and the dismemberment of their beloved 
country when Count Michel played his last card, 
marrying through the good offices of his uncle 
Claude de Vergy, (who had now succeeded his 
father as marechal of Burgundy) the widow of the 
Baron d'Alegre, Madeleine de Miolans, a daughter 
of a once illustrious Savoyard family. To her de- 
votion and that of his de Vergy's relatives, who 
spared nothing but the necessary funds to avert his 
impending ruin, Michel owed a short reprieve from 
the execution of his creditors. Four months' delay 
was granted his wife in w r hich to raise the interest 
due on the loans; but although journeying to Paris 
and soliciting every influence to procure the re- 
quired sum, the countess of Gruyere failed in her 
efforts. The poor lady now saw the end of her 
dream of rehabilitating the fallen fortunes of the 
man she had so unwisely married. How potent was 
the charm of the bankrupt hero who could still in- 
spire her unlimited devotion was still better proved 
by the affection of his half brother Frangois. Mod- 
est, dignified and charitable, as his brilliant senior 
was wasteful and rash, Francois' loyalty was unal- 
tered by any disgrace of misfortune. But in the 
very climax of his ills Count Michel lost this invalu- 
able brother and friend. In a letter to his implac- 
able executors he thus poured out his grief: 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 119 

"Sirs, this letter is to inform you that in addition 
to all the misfortunes and adversities, illnesses and 
otherwise, which it has pleased God to send me, it 
has been His good pleasure to take from me my 
brother Frangois d'Aubonne who died yesterday 
morning at eleven o'clock at Gruyere. The sorrow 
and grief which I suffer, dear Sirs, you cannot imag- 
ine, at thus losing my second self and the brother 
who has rendered me constant loyalty and service. 
Therefore, to you who are my chief masters, fathers 
and friends, I confide my sorrow, praying you as 
good fathers, friends, lords and ancient protectors of 
my house to console and assist me as has hitherto 
been your good pleasure." 

"Fanfarront" no longer, but helpless as a child in 
the face of the ills he had wrought, Count Michel 
sent his courageous wife on her many futile errands 
in his behalf, while he waited alone at the chateau 
for the inevitable end. Writing again and again to 
Fribourg and Berne, declaring that his illness gave 
him no peace and that the slightest effort to think 
redoubled his pains, he found no better occupation 
for one of his solitary days than to re-read his treaty 
with Fribourg. 

"Magnifique Monsieur PAvoyer, and honored 
lords, to your good graces I affectionately commend 
myself. 

"While I was sitting the other day, overwhelmed 
by the sufferings of my poor body, I began to re- 



120 The Counts of Gruyere 

read my treaty of Combourgeoisie with your city> 
to distract the ennui of my malady, when the count- 
ess' little dog who had been gamboling about me 
dragged off, while I was not looking, the ribbon and 
seal, which greatly annoyed me. I send you back 
the paper, therefore, asking you to be as good as 
to affix another seal, by which you will greatly 
oblige him who in heart and affection, Magnifique 
Monsieur l'Avoyer, is entirely your good citizen 
and servant." 

The four months' respite had now passed, and the 
countess with her devoted sister presented herself 
before the Diet to make a last effort to procure a 
postponement of the sentence of dispossession. In 
silence the deputies listened to her tearful appeal, 
when realizing that no answer was possible and un- 
willing to listen to the fatal decree, the countess and 
her sister requested permission to retire. Respect- 
fully conducting the weeping women from the 
chamber, the delegates then formally authorized the 
transference of Gruyere to the cities of Berne and 
Fribourg. At ten o'clock in the evening of this same 
fatal day, Count Michel, followed by a single faith- 
ful domestic, mounted his horse and rode away from 
Gruyere. The shadows of a November night, the 
sighing winds, the falling leaves, were the fitting 
accompaniment of this tragic departure. Signifi- 
cant also was it that with the fall of the house of 
Gruyere, the last remaining feudal sovereignty, the 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 121 



old chivalric order forever passed from Switzer- 
land. With the extinction of the power of Savoy, 
and the establishment of the inclusive league of can- 
tons and cities representing the new and united na- 
tion, the little principality of Gruyere was in any 
case doomed to the acceptance of the prevailing 
form of government. But although hastening by his 
extravagance the fall of his house, Count Michel 
had various difficulties for which he was not per- 
sonally responsible. With the repeated enfranchise- 
ment of his people from their feudal contributions 
and taxes, his revenues had already been seriously 
reduced, and the long legal process and armed re- 
sistance necessitated by his grandfather's struggle 
with the rival de Vergys, had exhausted a large part 
of the accumulated capital. Thus only a rigid sys- 
tem of retrenchment would have sufficed to preserve 
the financial integrity of Gruyere. For such an ad- 
ministration Count Michel was utterly unfitted both 
by character and training, and he precipitated his 
own inevitable ruin, when, yielding to his un- 
bounded and unrealizable ambitions, he essayed to 
reverse the course of events and restore the power of 
feudality in Switzerland, at the very moment of its 
disorganization. His refusal to accept any portion of 
his claims on the French crown, his rejection of the 
proposition to sell, while it was yet time, any part 
of his estates, were examples of his immoderate and 
unreasoning pride. But another cause, the machina- 



122 The Counts of Gruyere 

tions of the powerful and envious de Vergys, sin- 
gularly conspired to hasten the final dismemberment 
of the coveted province. Causing first the exhaust- 
ion of the Gruyere revenues, through the forced and 
loveless alliance with the ruling and legitimate line, 
the de Vergy strain produced in Michel a change- 
ling heir, who was empty of heart as he was bank- 
rupt in purse. Thus as the old order of feudalism, 
yielding to the progress of free thought, free speech 
and free faith, in the whole extent of Europe 
crumbled and fell, then was fulfilled in the already 
democratic Switzerland the old prophecy of the 
fool Chalamala, that "the Berne Bear would some 
day eat the Grue in the caldron of Fribourg." To 
Berne in the final division was allotted the moun- 
tainous regions of Gessenay and chateau d'Oex, 
while Fribourg took possession of the lower pasture 
lands, the city and the chateau, and the chateau itself 
they converted into the seat of government. In the 
deserted castle where for six centuries Count 
Michel's vigorous forbears had pacifically ruled 
with their vigorous sons, the last pitiful illegitimate 
child of the line was discovered by the Bailli of 
Fribourg. Sent with her mother, an old domestic 
of the chateau, the little Guillauma was brought up 
in the hospice and supported, like her mother, at the 
expense of the city. Thus finished in utter disgrace 
the illustrious line of pastoral kings. At the chateau 
of Oron, where the countess of Gruyere had fled 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 123 

after the decree of dispossession, her despairing hus- 
band joined her. In the cold of the November 
weather, the empty chateau, without servants, heat 
or supplies, was only a temporary refuge, although 
the council of Berne mercifully sent the countess a 
small sum of money for her immediate necessities. 
The paternal patience of the calculating Berne au- 
thorities was solicited by their equally hypocritical 
victim, in the following humble appeal sent by 
Count Michel upon his arrival at Oron. 

"Since it has pleased God so to chastise and afflict 
me that I am compelled to depart from your Excel- 
lencies and to follow the path He has pointed out to 
me, I praise Him in that His punishment is meted 
out to me in mercy and not according to my sins; my 
absence and inability to serve you as I have all my 
life desired being of equal affliction with my loss. 
I have always had such confidence in your great 
kindness and humanity, that I am assured that your 
magnificences will have compassion on me and my 
wife, who is departing to solicit you as humbly as 
possible to pardon my not appearing before you, as 
my heart is so desolate that I can say or do naught 
to help in these circumstances. Therefore, may it 
please you to listen to her proposition and to grant 
as great a degree of honor and welfare as is possible 
to your child." 

Although Berne had permitted the temporary 
residence of the deposed count at Oron, and had 



i24 The Counts of Gruyere 

granted to the countess the revenues of a small piece 
of land, the refugees soon left the "logis" which they 
found "si froid et si mal fourni de vivres/' and re- 
paired to Burgundy and the protection of their pow- 
erful de Vergy relatives. For many years the dis- 
possessed princeling was destined to pursue his 
adventurous career in the various kingdoms of Eur- 
ope. With his immediate necessities supplied by his 
wife's income, in the accustomed luxury of the cha- 
teaux of his relatives he quickly recovered his old 
pose of an independent and only temporarily de- 
posed potentate, and proceeding to Paris in his 
character as Chevalier du Roi, was able to obtain a 
surprising degree of recognition. Welcomed by 
Catherine de Medici as a Catholic among the Cath- 
olics, he was present as a councilor of the King's 
Order at the private and preliminary trial conducted 
by the queen mother of the assassin of his old gen- 
eral and commander the Due de Guise. King 
Charles IX may possibly have granted a part 
of Count Michel's claims upon the French crown, 
and was in any case so much influenced by his 
representations that he wrote to Berne and Fribourg 
recommending his reestablishment in his estates. 
When informed by the council of the respective 
cities of the conditions of his dispossession, King 
Charles made no further effort on his behalf. The 
still undiscouraged adventurer then repaired to 
Flanders to the palace and protection of his power- 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 125 

ful aunt the Seneschale of Hainault. From Hain- 
ault as a base of supplies, he journeyed about Fland- 
ers and Belgium, finding temporary sympathizers 
and supporters in various notabilities with whom he 
consulted as to the best method of recovering his 
estates, or at least wresting them from the hands of 
Berne and Fribourg. The Cardinal de Granvelle, 
who was intimately known to the king of Spain, and 
the Belgian ambassador to the Spanish court were 
solicited to represent his claims for recognition as 
a good Catholic to his Spanish majesty. To his sug- 
gestions that Gruyere would be a valuable addition 
to the Spanish territories, no more attention was paid 
than to his desire to be decorated with the Order of 
the Toison d'Or and to be received as a colonel in 
the Spanish army. For Philip II, enlightened by 
the cardinal as to the character of the pretendant 
for his favor, had no wish to tempt him from the 
service of France, and still less to embroil himself 
with the Swiss Confederation by intriguing with a 
dispossessed bankrupt for the recovery of his lost 
estates. Deserted by the kings of France and Spain, 
the count, since the death of his faithful wife, old 
and alone, proceeded to the court of the emperor. 
A new friend, the Alsatian Count Bollwiler, was so- 
licited to arrange for him another advantageous 
matrimonial alliance, while the Emperor Maximil- 
ian II was so moved by the recital of his woes that 
he sent a letter to Berne and Fribourg request- 



126 The Counts of Gruyere 

ing that in view of the count's advanced age and 
many adversities, he should be permitted to repur- 
chase and enjoy his lost principality for the brief 
remainder of his days. A long memorial from the 
count accompanied the emperor's letter and an- 
nounced that with the aid of his new and powerful 
friends, he would soon be in a position to buy back 
Gruyere. He ended with an appeal for compassion 
on his bald head and his white beard. 

With respectful attention to the august request of 
of the emperor, Berne and Fribourg replied that no 
provision had been made for the repurchase of 
Gruyere, and detailed the conditions by which they 
had acquired the property. The emperor thereupon 
declined to renew his recommendations, and after 
this final defeat, Count Michel, deprived of his last 
hope of royal or imperial assistance, the neediest 
and loneliest of adventurers, lived a hand-to-mouth 
existence with the faithful domestic who had fol- 
lowed him since the day he had departed from 
Gruyere. Nursing always the same chimera of 
some day returning triumphant to his lost province, 
he pursued his peregrinations, finding a final refuge 
in the Burgundian chateau of Thalemy, belonging 
to his cousin Francois de Vergy, where he died at 
last in March of the year 1576. On a day in May 
a messenger from Burgundy announced his decease 
to his uncle the protonataire Dom Pierre de Gruy- 
ere. With tolling of bells the news was proclaimed. 



The Fall of the House of Gruyere 127 

and a month later, before a great throng of people 
from all parts of the country, a memorial service was 
held in the church at Gruyere. "Desolatione magna 
desolata est Grueria, ploratus et ulleratus auditi 
sunt in Grueria, et in omnibus finibus eius." With 
such a text the last Gruyere prelate celebrated the 
honors due to the last count of his line. "Desolate 
with a great desolation," in truth were the people 
who, bitterly weeping, lamented the loss of their 
happy independance, preserved through so many 
long centuries under the kindly rule of their be- 
loved counts. A halo of melancholy romance had 
gathered through the popular traditions about the 
figure of Count Michel, so that he has strangely be- 
come the typical representative of the beauty, 
strength and valor of his far worthier predecessors. 
Conflicting reports about the place of his death and 
entombment, strange tales of his reappearance, have 
made him a second Boabdil, unburied, always re- 
turning to the beloved home of his youth. An 
hallucinated exile in life, his ghost, hallucinated, 
ever returning, haunts his lost and lovely Gruyere. 



CHAPTER X 



GRUYERE WITHOUT ITS COUNTS 

EARLY four hundred years have passed 
since the fall of its counts, but the merci- 
less march of democracy, although 
changing the government of Gruyere 
has left the people strangely unaltered. In spite 
of the injunctions of the Lutheran Bernois, they still 
danced and sang, and until the dawn of the present 
century still spoke their musical patois. The 
chateau, long used as the residence of a prefet 
of Fribourg, was offered for sale when in the 
middle of the 19th century the prefecture was 
transferred to Bulle. For a long time left to decay, 
it was finally doomed to demolition, when for the 
same sum offered by a housebreaker of Vevey, it was 
happily purchased by M. Bovy of Geneva. His 
brother, a painter and pupil of Ingres, devoted the 
remaining strength left to him after a disabling 

128 




Gruyere Without Its Counts i 29 

paralysis, to the restoration of the chateau, and in 
this enthusiastic service exhausted the family for- 
tune. His friends and companions in Paris gath- 
ered about him, and to the beautiful frescoes with 
which he adorned the walls of the Hall of the Chev- 
aliers were added the landscape vignettes of the 
salon. Thus several Corot canvases are strangely 
found in this out of the way corner in the Swiss 
mountains, a lovely tribute of the great modern mas- 
ter to the long past glories of Gruyere. In the joust- 
ing court flowers bloom bravely through the passing 
seasons, the old well with its moss covered roof 
jewels the terrace with its emerald green; through 
the chapel windows the painted light streams over 
walls where in silver on scarlet still flies the Grue. 
On the clock tower, still circling, the hands mark 
the passing of time and the bells in the church still 
ring out their summons to prayer. At Easter the 
"Benichons" bring the people together for their old 
dances and songs, and in the long "Veillees" the lads 
and the maids through the summer nights or in 
winter beside their bright fires, watch the dawning 
of love. The maidens, like Juliet, lean from low 
vine-covered windows, and with beckoning candles 
invite their lovers to climb. The spring pastures 
still blossom with marjolaine and narcissus, with 
cowslips and rue, the orchards still redden in au- 
tumn with ripe fruit which falls with the breeze, 
with tressed wheat, goats, and cows black and white; 



130 The Counts of Gruyere 

the green fertile country abounds, and as in Prov- 
ence a Mireille is the poet's dream of its maids, so 
is "Marie la Tresseuse" in poems and tales the wheat 
weaving girl of Gruyere. The "Armaillis" still 
drive their herds to the mountains, still singing 
"Le ranz des vaches" the song which among all 
others best reveals the soul of their race. "Lioba," 
"Lioba," one should hear the refrain as it echoes 
from the valleys and hills, the same cry, musical, 
lingering, melancholy, which through century after 
century has been sung by generations of Gruyere 
herdsmen. 

"Le Ranz des Vaches." 

The herdsmen of the Colombettes, 
To milk the cows arose. 

Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

Come! Come! Large and small, 
The black, the white, the short, the tall, 
Starry forehead, red and gold, 
All the young and all the old. 
Under the oak tree come! 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

Bells came first, 
Jet black came last, 
But at the stream they stopped aghast 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 



Gruyere Without Its Counts 



Alas, poor Pierre! what will you do? 
Trouble enough you have, 'tis true. 
Ha! Hai Lioba. 

At the Cure's door 
You now must tap, 
He'll tell you how to cross the gap. 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

And what should I to the Cure say? 
A mass shall I beg, or will he pray 
To help my cows go over? 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

The Cure he, of a cheese was fain, 
"A creamy cheese, or your cows remain 
On the other side, 'tis very plain." 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

"Send us your pretty maid," said Pierre, 
"To carry the cheese, 
I speak you fair." 

Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

"Too pretty by far is my rosy maid, 
She might not return," the Cure said. 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 

"What belongs to the Church 
We may not take, 

Confession humble we then should make." 
Ha! Ha! Lioba. 



132 The Counts of Gruyere 



"Go to friend Pierre, 
The mass shall be said, 
( Good luck be yours, rich cheese and bread. " 
Ha!Ha!Lioba. 

Gayly Pierre Went to his waiting herd, 
And freely they passed at the Cure's word. 
Ha!Ha!Lioba. 

The soft terminations of the romanized French 
are never more musical than in this famous song 
which, during their foreign campaigns, reduced the 
Swiss soldiers to such weeping longing for home 
that it was forbidden by their generals. Melancholy 
as is the repeated refrain, the couplets reveal a rav- 
ishing picture of the customs and the observing 
satirical spirit of the Gruyerien. Is not the quip of 
the cure worthy of any son of the Emerald Isle? 

In truth this "verte Gruyere" shut away from the 
world by its mountains as Ireland is by the sea, is 
like a lost island, fabled, remote, its speech Proven- 
cal, its soul purely Celt. Laughter loving, warlike 
and brave in the idyllic years of their prime, the 
Gruyeriens of to-day are still gay, caustic of wit as 
they are kindly at heart; and, in a changed world, as 
tenacious of their new republican rights as they 
were erstwhile valiant vassals to their pastoral kings. 
The source of innumerable songs and legends in the 
rich and melodious Gruyere speech, still pastoral, 
this country has been celebrated in its exquisite, 



Gruyere Without Its Counts 133 

unchanging beauty by many poets ; its romances and 
its national song have been the themes of dramatic 
and musical inspirations. Not yet has the cruel 
light of modern day chased the fairies, the may- 
maidens, the "servans" and the evil spirits from the 
forests and the caves. The place where the devil, 
joining in a coraule, drew the dancing people over 
a precipice is still shunned by young and old; with 
pride also will they point out the slope of the Gruy- 
ere hill where when the men were fighting at the 
Pre de Chenes the women drove their goats, each 
bearing a lighted candle, through the darkness upon 
an invading horde of Bernois, who, thinking they 
were devils, fled in affright. For the refreshment 
of the good spirits who guard the herds, basins of 
fresh milk are still set in every mountain chalet. 
The origin of the Gruyere customs, like the coraules 
and the still observed habit of hanging wreaths 
on their door posts or in the oak groves, have a 
derivation of the most distant antiquity, in the Chal- 
dean cradle of the race, in the myths of India and 
the Orient. The personified forces of Nature, the 
cloud wraiths of the mountains, the lisping voices 
of the streams, for many centuries haunting the 
imaginations of the people, still live in their legends, 
as they do in Celtic Ireland. The idyllic loveliness 
of the country is deliciously completed by the vines 
which are trained over the houses, by the flowers 
which grow in their windows, so that from spring to 



i34 The Counts of Gruyere 

November Gruyere is a garden, ringed by blue 
mountains under a sky of pure blue. In the Romand 
country are many exquisite towns such as Romont 
and Rue, Estavayer, Oron and Morat — happily pre- 
served in their unaltered mediaeval perfection. But 
the heart of this country is Gruyere, impregnated 
with the romance of the departed days of chivalry, 
its people affectionately faithful to the memory of 
their noble and beloved rulers. 

As for the Celtic wit, ever present in their sayings 
and legends, it is characteristically shown in the 
following little story of the "Fountain of Lessoc." 

The Fountain of Lessoc 

It happened one day that good father Colin went 
to the fair at chateau d'Oex, where he successfully 
transacted his business, particularly at the tavern. 
On his return journey he stopped at the inn at Mont- 
bovon, not so much for the pleasure of drinking as 
to chat with his old cronies, with the result that it 
was midnight before he was on his way to Lessoc. 
A cold welcome awaited him at home. "Thou art 
a selfish and a drunken wight, and the donkey is 
dying of thirst," said Fanchon with many reproaches 
for his evil conduct. Greatly ashamed was Colin, 
and to quickly repair his error untied la Cocotte 
and led her to the fountain. The night was superb, 



Gruyere Without Its Counts 135 

and in the water was reflected the shining disk of 
the moon. Precisely in this silver spot, the poor 
Cocotte began to ease her thirst when, "Behold," 
said her master, "she is drinking the moon." Then 
suddenly the moon went under a cloud, and at the 
same moment Cocotte, quite satisfied, lifted her 
head, "Heavens!" cried Colin, "the moon has gone 
and my donkey has drunk her." 

Not a word did he say to his wife, but all night 
watched over Cocotte in the stable. In the morn- 
ing, up and down the village street, he drove her to 
help her digestion. "It matters little to me," he 
said to himself, "what becomes of the moon, for 
there is a new one each month, but I intend to take 
care of my good donkey." And soon all Lessoc mar- 
veled to see Colin and Cocotte, Cocotte and Colin, 
passing and repassing continually over the same 
road, one apparently frightened, the other sadly 
bored by the exercise. "Is your donkey ill?" asked 
the good mayor at last. "Woe is me, she is ruined," 
replied Colin, "for she has swallowed the moon and 
will not give her up." Whereupon the mayor, after 
grave reflection remarked, "If la Cocotte has not 
yet gotten rid of the moon, poor Colin already is rid 
of his senses." 

At the communal council, the mayor presented 
at length the strange case. "If a new moon appears," 
he declared, "we may be reassured, but to avoid the 
possibility of further accident, we will place a spa- 



136 The Counts of Gruyere 

cious roof over the fountain." This wise decision 
was adopted to the general satisfaction, and such 
was the authentic origin of the elegant fountain of 
Lessoc. 

In ancient chronicles and modern publications 
many similar stories are repeated, while a multitude 
of ballads, of legends taken from the lips of the old 
peasants, constitute a precious and abounding docu- 
ment of the ancient Gruyere customs. 

But uniquely characteristic as are these Gruyere 
people, the history of their country is still more ex- 
traordinary. Almost negligible in wealth or popu- 
lation, the little mountain province, lying midway 
between France, Austria, and Savoy, held in the 
days of its prosperity an almost unexplainably im- 
portant position beside the great monarchies of the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Midway also 
between the Berne and Fribourg republics, the 
Gruyere counts held something very nearly ap- 
proaching a balance of power between Savoy and 
the Confederates. Feudal by race and by the inde- 
pendence of their little principality, they were so 
trusted by the Confederates and so powerful with 
Savoy, that they repeatedly acted as arbitrators in 
their mutual quarrels, and by this high influence 
were sharers and at times framers of the treaties 
with the neighboring kingdoms, and admitted to the 
diplomatic councils of Europe. They were not 
only valorous in the defence of their country but 



Gruyere Without Its Counts 137 

by the Latin charm of their race were adored by 
their subjects, and held in great favor by the dukes 
of Savoy, themselves allied by many inter-marriages 
with all the crowns of Europe. So important was 
the little Gruyere to the French kings and the em- 
perors of Germany that, as has been related, they 
occupied themselves with its internal affairs, at- 
tempting to intervene in such matters as runaway 
marriages and the rival claims for succession. But 
the attitude of its rulers towards royal and imperial 
mandates was so independent, their maintenance of 
their feudal sovereignty was so tenacious that they 
preserved the high and happy ideals of their house, 
and were the last of the Swiss nobles to yield to the 
march of democracy. 

Their long rule, extending through six centuries 
of internal wars, during times when oppression was 
the prerogative of their order, was stained by no 
single act of cruelty. In the peculiar charm of 
their race, in the unique influence of their position 
in Europe, as in the unbroken length of their rule, 
the counts of Gruyere were the most important of 
all the noble Swiss families. Titles and aristocratic 
privileges have long since vanished from republican 
Switzerland, where liberty triumphant, the age- 
wrought jewel of a thousand years, shines clearly 
among the tumults of the warring nations. But re- 
mote among its mountains, a cherished place of pil- 
grimage and refreshment, the little feudal city still 



138 The Counts of Gruyere 

crowns its green hill, and in the Gruyere people the 
Celtic soul, undying fresh and free, still sings in 
their love songs and war songs, still speaks in their 
legends and tales of its birth in the morning of 
time. 



APPENDIX 



The traditions of Romand Helvetia have preserved 
the memory of the establishment of Vandal or Burgun- 
dian hordes in that part of Gaul. 

Thus has arisen the belief that the once wild region 
traversed by the river Sarine came into the possession 
of some chief of these tribes who there settled with his 
followers. The unavowed author (Bonsetten) of a 
history of the Counts of Gruyere is of the opinion that 
it is possible that, in accordance with the customs of the 
Germanic tribes, that Gruerius, the hero of the popular 
legend, or his warriors, might have carried a Grue 
(crane) as a symbol of a migratory race on their hel- 
mets or shields, and that the leader himself might have 
adopted the name Gruerius from the emblem. 

The theory, however, disagrees entirely with the tra- 
dition that the Burgundians were so fond of liberty that 
they bore the figure of a cat upon their banners. It is 
well known that the arms of Gruyere are a Grue on a 
scarlet field, and this circumstance alone has evidently 
given rise to the anonymous author's conjecture. His 
opinion not only has no positive proof to support it, but 
has no color of probability in its favor. 

J. J. Hisely, author of "Le Comte de Gruyere." 



139 



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